Swiss photography prize: winning exhibition opens

An international jury selected two winners from around 70 submissions from up-and-coming artists: Italian Emidio Battipaglia (*1984) and French Augustin Lignier (*1995) are the winners of this year's Vontobel Contemporary Photography Prize A New Gaze. They can look forward to 20,000 Swiss francs in prize money and an exhibition. The jury was impressed by their contributions on the subject of Community: Battipaglia explores the ever-changing relationship between humans, nature and technology with an interactive installation that brings together plants and artificial intelligence. In his photographs, Lignier presents the results of a social experiment on non-verbal communication and its influence on the formation and development of communities. The exhibition opens on May 23 at 6 p.m. at Bank Vontobel AG, Gotthardstrasse 43, 8022 Zurich, and ends on August 31. On June 7, the organizer invites you to an artist talk with Battipaglia and Lignier.

Both artists have a master's degree in photography from the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne. Battipaglia lives in Milan and has exhibited in London, Tokyo, Paris and Dresden, among other cities. Lignier lives in Paris and won the Plat(t)form Prize of the Fotomuseum Winterthur in 2023 and the Prix Images Vevey x ECAL in 2022 with his Master's project.