Maurice Schobinger

The Kasia Michalski Gallery is pleased to announce “Black Dust” – a solo exhibition by Maurice Schobinger. Specializing in industrial photography, the Swiss artist reveals his passion for the monumentality and grandeur of human constructions, especially metalworking factories which he discovers and portrays around the world. Between 2008 and 2011, he realized several journeys into the heart of Russia, visiting the “Red October” factory in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), as well as the plants in Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk in the Ural Mountains – the flagship investments from the Soviet era. The photographs he took there not only paid homage to the people working in extremely harsh conditions, but also brought to light the surreal beauty of these extraordinary spaces.

For the “Black Dust” exhibition, the artist has chosen works in which the man and his testimony give way to the spectacular scenery. The subdued, dark hues and contrasting light typically used by Schobinger introduce an overwhelming, dramatic silence. The huge machines, left by themselves in vast, empty production halls, remind us of immobile, sleeping giants, leading their own, independent lives. The photos of Maurice Schobinger make us aware of the fact that the industrial era is omnipresent, but hidden from our daily lives. It lurks in remote corners of the world, beyond our perception. Although apparently obsolete in comparison with the cutting-edge technology we carry in our pockets, the dusty, giant machines still play an important role in our lives. And in a broader sense, “Black Dust” reminds us that sometimes our creations outlast ourselves.