Women and their cities

Between 2016 and 2019, Swiss artist Catherine Gfeller embarked on a journey to a number of Chinese cities, weaving a narrative as she engaged with the stories of women from different backgrounds.

Her vision of the women, the challenges they confront, and their distinctive spirit are the focal points of the artist's subsequent explorations.

In the bustling streets of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Hong Kong, Beijing and Kunming in Yunnan province, Gfeller found a means of exploring the essence of these urban landscapes by focusing her lens on women.

On Saturday, the Swiss embassy in Beijing unveiled a solo exhibition of the work that resulted, which spotlights the perspectives and voices of women. Through her lens, Gfeller skillfully establishes a dialogue and builds a bridge between the narratives of the women and the vibrancy of the cities they inhabit. Passing the Cities through the Lens of Women displays some of the 30 results, including photographs, texts, and videos.

For Gfeller, women's voices are very important in modern Chinese society. During shooting, she learned how the women perceive the new ways of life and how they find an anchor in their cities.

"The moment I pressed the shutter, I felt like I became part of the city," Gfeller says.

Ambassador of Switzerland to China Jurg Burri said at the opening ceremony, "Ms Gfeller cares very much about people, especially women in cities. Women's issues are a global topic and I hope that more women's voices will be heard."

The exhibition is open to the public until the end of March.

The 58-year-old artist is known for her focus on landscape photography. Using techniques like montage, collage, and superimposition, she creates unique photographic artworks.

During her three-decade career in the art world, Gfeller has explored distant landscapes and cultures, drawing inspiration from her travels.

In 2016, she started a project focusing on the role of women in Chinese megacities. This led to a major exhibition in 2018 at the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou. Gfeller says the positive response from a wide audience motivated her to continue the project in other cities.

"My focus is on the intersection between Chinese women and the megacities in which they live. In each city, I met around 10 women of various professional backgrounds to talk in depth before taking photos and filming them," she says.

Gfeller captures the women in both urban and natural settings. She takes photos, films them, and records their conversations as they walk.

"Each took me to places where they have childhood memories, or where their present life takes them every day. This personal link created a special atmosphere. With my camera, I tried to capture their thoughts, feelings, memories, desires, living presences and fantasies," she says.

In her photos and videos, viewers often encounter women gazing thoughtfully at the city, shot from behind. Gfeller's camera contemplates the women as they in turn contemplate the cityscape.

"I like to meet the inhabitants and confront their experiences with my own artistic vision," she says. "I'm trying to find beauty and transform anonymity and loneliness into something joyful."

Gfeller's objective is not rooted in documentary reporting. Instead, she seeks inspiration from observed reality and reinterprets it through an artistic vision that is reconstructed and occasionally transformed into fiction.

"I want their stories to be interpreted in a poetic, sensory manner in a play of fixed images and images in movement, urban noise, natural sounds, voices and the intermingling of words and silence."