/BIOGRAPHY
Since 2011, Marcel Rickli (*1986) has been exploring the ways in which we are fundamentally changing our planet in an ongoing series of photographic field studies. The energy and resource requirements of humanity and their resulting environmental impacts, which are often severe and irreversible, form the leitmotif of his work. In previous works, Marcel Rickli trained his camera on ore mining in Sweden, which results in massive land subsidence and has even caused the resettlement of an entire city (“Kiruna / 2015”), as well as on brown coal mining in Germany, to which entire landscapes are sacrificied (“Lausitzer Braunkohlerevier / 2015”). New hopes in the fight against climate collapse have also caught his attention: pictures of the world’s largest wind farm in the Gobi Desert and a Chinese solar power plant that couldn’t be more futuristic illustrate what the energy revolution could look like (“Ambivalent / 2017 – 18”). Rickli’s work impressively captures an epoch in which humankind has become the most important influencing factor on our planet’s biological, geological and atmospheric processes: the Anthropocene.
/EDUCATION
2022 - 2025 MA Transdisciplinary Studies, Zurich University of the Arts
2019 International Summer School of Photography ISSP, Latvia. Workshop with Mathieu Asselin & Sergio Valenzuela Escobedo
2015 Photodesigner with Advanced Federal Diploma of Professional Education and Training (Dipl. Fotodesigner).
2011 - 2016 Various internships and assistant jobs. Among others with Beat Bühler and Christian Dietrich in Zurich.
2010 - 2013 Photodesign study at School of Design in Bern
/EXHIBITIONS
2023 AEON, Château de Gruyères, Gruyère, Switzerland (Solo Exhibition)
2022 The Nuclear Spike (Isobath Collective), So-Da Art Space, Zurich, Switzerland
2021 Photofairs Shanghai, Insights Exhibition, Shanghai, China
2021 Li Shui Photo Festival 2021, Lishui, China
2021 Belfast Photo Festival, Belfast Exposed, United Kingdom (Solo Exhibition)
2021 Format Festival, Derby, United Kingdom
2021 Prix Photoforum 2020, Photoforum Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland
2020 Athens Photo Festival, Main Program, 2020, Greece
2020 Month of Photography in Minsk 2020, Belarus
2020 Fotofestiwal Lodz Open Call Exhibition 2020, Poland
2019 - 2020 AEON, Coalmine, Winterthur, Switzerland (Solo Exhibition)
2018 Prix Photoforum 2018, Photoforum Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland
2016 Swiss Photo Award 16 (the selection), Photobastei 2.0, Zurich, Switzerland
2015 MM Edition, Galerie Muster-Meier, Bern, Switzerland
2015 Prix Photobastei 15, Photobastei 2.0, Zurich, Switzerland
2015 Diploma exhibition, Photodesign, Dienstgebäude, Zurich, Switzerland
2015 Zeitzeiger - Verwandlungen antiker Bildwelten, Bromer Art Collection, Roggwil, Switzerland
2014 Textbau - Schweizer Architektur zur Diskussion, S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
2013 Exhibition of final works, Photodesign, School of Design, Bern, Switzerland
/AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
2021 GUP Fresh Eyes Talent 2021
2021 FORMAT/Lishui Photography Festival Special Exhibition Award, Winner, AEON
2021 Finalist for Format Festival, Open Call 2020, AEON
2020 Prix Photoforum 2020, AEON
2020 Selected for Main Program, Athens Photo Festival 2020, AEON
2020 Finalist for Fotofestiwal Lodz Open Call 2020 AEON
2018 Prix Photoforum 2018, AMBIVALENT
2017 vfg Young Talent Award of Photography, Shortlist HAZARDOUS HAZE
2016 Swiss Photo Award 16 (the selection), Selected in Category Free KIRUNA
2015 Prix Photobastei 15 LAUSITZER BRAUNKOHLEREVIER
2015 vfg Young Talent Award of Photography, Shortlist LAUSITZER BRAUNKOHLEREVIER
2015 vfg Young Talent Award of Photography, Shortlist HAGNECK
2014 vfg Young Talent Award of Photography, Shortlist ABSENCE
/COLLECTIONS
2020 Volkart Stiftung, Winterthur
/PUBLICATIONS
2015 Marcel Rickli HAGNECK, Monograph, Self Published ISBN 978-3-033-05255
2014 Zeitzeiger - Verwandlung antiker Bildwelten, Edition Clandestin ISBN 978-3905297645
2014 S AM 13 - Textbau - Schweizer Architektur zur Diskussion, Christoph Merian Verlag ISBN 978-3856166526