CATHERINE LEUTENEGGER
New Artificiality, 2016- (ongoing)

The rise of digital technologies has opened up unprecedented new avenues of experimentation. One that may have a major impact in the years to come is 3D printing. New Artificiality – divided in different series – investigates the role it could play in revolutionizing various business sectors.
From its initial primary use in prototyping, 3D printing has become a rapidly growing medium with a wide range of applications in the last decade. With its increasing democratization and its ever-growing possibilities, Leutenegger explores the current limits and future developments related to 3D printing in the process of revolutionizing numerous business sectors.
The Swiss artist visited the headquarters of a Chinese construction company named WinSun based in Suzhou in northwest of Shanghai. The firm built one of the world’s largest 3D printers and gained massive attention by producing ten houses in 24 hours at a cost of approximately $5,000 each and they also printed a five-story building and a 3’600 square meter mansion in the Suzhou Industrial Park.
Although this is very exciting, there are also some ethical and safety concerns regarding what will be mass-producible in the near future.

BIO

Catherine Leutenegger (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1983) holds a BA and MA degree in Visual Communication / Photography from University of Art and Design / ECAL. Her first monographical book titled Hors-champ was published in 2006 by Infolio through the prestigious Manor Cultural Award in Lausanne. Beside she is the recipient of several major fellowships including two Swiss Federal Design Grants (2006 and 2008); the Raymond Weil International Photography Prize (2008) and the BCV Encouragement Prize (2006). In 2007 she took part in an artist residency program in New York and started her project named Kodak City. In 2014, her second book was published by Kehrer Verlag. Her photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions: Aperture Gallery, New York; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; Bieler Fototage, Biel; Fotomuseum, Winterthur; Head On Photofestival, Sydney; Lianzhou Photofestival; Festival Circulations, Paris; Carla Sozzani Gallery, Milan. Her work is in the collections of several public and private institutions, including: Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; MAST Foundation Collection, Bologna; Musée Nicéphore-Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF PRO HELVETIA