Join Teju Cole for a richly narrated flip-through of his latest book Fernweh, as he reflects on the genesis of this exploration into the Swiss landscape, as well as drawing out the book's many allusions, enigmas, and visual puzzles.
Thursday 6 August 2020
19:00 BST, London
14:00 EDT, New York
Running time: approx 50 mins
About Fernweh
The picturesque vistas and apparent stability of Switzerland have made it an elusive subject for contemporary photography. Over a five-year period (2014 – 2019), Cole found a distinctly new way to look at a country that has been the quintessence of tourist experience for almost two centuries. Fernweh muses on the German word for a longing to be elsewhere. Cole’s meditative and scrupulously composed work, made with colour film, is evocative of the hidden history of the Alpine nation as well as of its highly curated terrain. Returning to Switzerland year after year, Cole shares the patience and mild palette of luminaries of contemporary European photography — but the constructivist tension in these images is all his own. With photographs shot in every corner of the country — from Vaud to Graubünden to Lugano — Fernweh creates a vision of Switzerland that, though largely devoid of human presence, is rich in human traces; none more so than Cole’s own distinct way of seeing.
To order copies of the book visit here
