Douglas Mandry
THE BIOGRAPHY
Douglas Mandry is an artist born in 1989 and living in Switzerland. His work examines the relationship between man and nature, and how nature is perceived through representation. At the crossroads of science, technology, photography and sculpture, his practice crystallises researches rooted in archeology and history into tangible works, always underlining the condition of the natural world surrounding us. The tension between two- and three-dimensions is omnipresent in his oeuvre, within a wide range of mediums. Since graduating from ECAL University of Arts and Design with honours, Mandry's work has been exhibited across Europe, such as at Die Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, C/O Berlin, Foam Museum Amsterdam, Le Lieu Unique, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museum Luxembourg and Kunsthaus Wien, was awarded of the Foam Talent 2020, and nominated for prestigious awards, such as the Paul Huf and Prix Pictet.
Douglas Mandry examines the aspects of the photographic medium being a mechanical recording of reality in order to question our relationship to memory, technology and nature within the Anthropocene era. Experimenting with photographic techniques and sometimes self-invented processes, he uses the medium as a raw material, stretches it, reworks it according to selected processes, to reach a critical distance from the indexical qualities originally attributed to photography. By doing so, he aims at creating a new typology of objects, somewhere in between two- and three- dimensionality, mixing images with non photographic material. As a result, his work is an attempt to raise questions regarding materiality and tangibility, in a world of permanent image-production.
Douglas Mandry
The collaboration
Douglas Mandry
THE INSIGHT
“My main source of inspiration is the natural world that surrounds us and how we evolve within it as a society. The notions of time and space are also very present in each of my projects. I see my work as a non-linear re-interpretation of reality.”
“By talking about glaciers, I feel like I am talking about us all. It is a global reflection which everyone should have about climate change. Glaciers made global change visible.”
“If science is a large part of my work, the outcome will always be an arbitrary interpretation of it. I try to make room for interpretation and raise more questions than answers. This is how I engage with the world around me as an artist and aim at bringing people to reflect about specific topics along the way.”