Markus Brunetti / FACADES.

Any observer standing in front of Markus Brunetti’s large photographs immediately senses the quiet grandeur of the pictures – a grandeur defined first of all by the objects themselves, and secondly by the way the artist interprets, configures, and works on them. In their precision, lighting, austerity, and graphic quality, Brunetti’s images recall paintings and engravings by Old Masters, even though he employs the most modern technology in his work. More than nine years ago Brunetti began pursuing his passion and set out on a long journey through Europe that is still going on today, capturing the continent’s most famous cathedrals, churches, and cloisters in his photographs. He uses a technique he developed especially for this project, in order to explore the limits of digital photography, vision, and image reproduction. He not only visits the renowned sacred buildings, such as the large Gothic cathedrals (Cologne, Strassbourg, Reims, etc.), but he also discovers gems such as the village church in Cortegaça (Portugal) shown here with its Azulejos (ceramic tiles), which he photographed with the same devotion and attention he gives to its more famous “big” sisters. Brunetti is an enthusiastic “picture maker,” an “inventor of images” who captures and interprets the buildings he photographs in the same way that their builders and architects must have originally imagined them when they first laid out their designs on paper.

Shot from an uncompromising frontal perspective, the solitary objects seem to float, detached from time and their surroundings, bathed in a soft, almost surrealistic light. Viewers can immerse themselves completely in the experience of observing the whole façade, free from the constrictions of the normal low-angle perspective, and without the distractions and diversions stemming from the noise of everyday urban life. One is nearly tempted to try to touch the suddenly visible details in all of their apparent three-dimensionality.

The certified works of art are of the best quality, and printed on the finest rag paper in a strictly limited edition, using the Digigraphie® process developed by EPSON. In the exhibition, the works, which measure up to 1.5 x 3 meters, are displayed in frames made by the e-Xhibit company.