The Prix Pictet Laureates
Sponsored by Pictet&Cie, the Prix Pictet is the world’s first prize dedicated to photography and sustainability. It has a unique mandate – to uncover art of the highest order, applied to confront the pressing social and environmental challenges of the new millennium. Each year the award features work that responds to a specific sustainability theme. The first theme was Water, the second Earth.
As well as the main prize one of the shortlisted photographers is invited to complete a commission in a region where Pictet&Cie are supporting a sustainability project.
This exhibition presents the first two winners of the CHF 100,000 award, Benoit Aquin, and Nadav Kander and the first two commissioned artists Munem Wasif and Ed Kashi. Together, they present a powerful testament to the fragile state of our world.
820 characters with spaces
The Artists
Benoit Aquin won the first Prix Pictet for his series The Chinese Dust Bowl which charts the collapse of a huge swathes of formerly arable land in Northern China into a virtual desert. This exhibition features works from Aquin’s recent Haiti series (2010).
Nadav Kander prize winning Yangtze, The Long River is a series paradoxically beautiful photographs that illuminate the devastating effect of breakneck development on the lives and traditions of the people who live alongside the Yangtze – in all a population greater than that of the United States.
Ed Kashi photographs arise from a field trip to Madagascar where he worked association with the charity Azafady. His portfolio Madagascar – A Land Out of Balance chronicles the compromised beauty of this threatened island.
Munem Wasif’s commission was shot on location in South-West Bangladesh where Pictet were supporting the work of Water Aid. The result was a series of searing photographs of forgotten lives.
At the Espace Arlaud:
Place de la Riponne
CH - 1005 Lausanne
Schedules:
Wed-Fri, from 12 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sat-Sun, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MUSEE DE L'ELYSEE
Summer exhibitions program
