Swiss humor is hardly one of the country’s most popular exports. But the artists Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs (both Swiss, despite their names) have made a breakthrough in Moscow. Russian visitors giggle as they pass by the duo’s clever collages. Onorato and Krebs: the future of comedy? Their original plan was to travel to the United States, capture the American dream, and relive the emotions of their idols, the masters of American photography: Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, William Christenberry, Robert Adams and Joel Sternfeld.
These thirty something Swiss, who work mainly as a duo, quickly realized the absurdity of the scholastic imitation of their predecessors: “We were simultaneously faced with two experiences: discovery on the one hand, and the feeling that we had seen it all before in books, photographs, films and stories. It was all very confusing. But we found a way to work with that confusion.” Incidentally, the theme of the Moscow Photo Biennial is “The Road”. Over the course of their two American odysseys in 2006 and 2008, Onorato and Krebs gradually assembled a collection of photographs. It wasn’t until the end of their third trip that they realized the technique of collage would allow them to find an original path in their conquest of America. It would take them three more years. What the duo offers is not a grotesque, bizarre and satirical vision of the United States, but of their own fantasies and representations of the country: a mushroom cloud at dawn, a flying saucer blowing its landing, French fries surveying the Grand Canyon… and absurd roads, comically glued onto distinctly American landscapes. Unfortunately, the Onorato & Krebs photos occupy the back wall of the exhibition hall, where bored people wait for their friends or make phone calls. The Swiss deserved better, for taking the banal out of “Biennale”.
Emmanuel Grynszpan
Until April 15
Multimedia Art Museum
Ostozhenka, 16
Moscow, Russia
