Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

In central Switzerland, international companies enjoy tax privileges and set offices in large buildings just like those of The City in London. The managers and employees roam the streets of a small village in german convertibles or running clothes at lunchtime. The management and research division of these companies is based in Switzerland but theproduction take place in developing countries, nations that own valuable materials at cheap price. The only small thing is that operating in such a kind of places they can easily evade from respect human and environment rights. Glencore for instance is a giant wholesaler and mineral extractor based in Baar, is one of the biggest commercial company in the world, in 2010 they owned the 60% of the zinc global market, 50% of the copper mines of the and 3% of the petrol infrastructures. We can say that Glencore own worldwide oil, mineral and natural gas facilitiesas well as food industries. The accusation on Glencore are heavy, thework conditions of the employees are unacceptable based on the western world standards, without mention the negative impact on the local communities and on the environment. The work of Younès Klouche not pretend to judge those dynamics, or using images as a tool of complaint of a ethically questionable legacy, handed down from company to company. The artist gives us the access inside of this tax free heaven, absorbed in one of the most beautiful landscape of the entire nation. With no privileged access on site, central Switzerland allowed Younès Klouche to observe what makes no uproar, spy the discrete practices of traders hide inside dark and shiny buildings that hits also the less attentive watch. As spooky postcards, made with sharpen and rigid elegance, the images of Younès Klouche are almost violent and creates an aesthetics experience that leave the observer frozen. An intangible cold that deals with the distance, the untouchability of a world that remains closed in a inscrutable bubble of glass. Text by Matilde Scaramellini