An Urban Installation of Gabriele Basilico's Photographs
Conceptual project, le Flon, Lausanne, Switzerland.
It is a very satisfying feeling when life comes full circle. Many moons ago, my architectural thesis project at the EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, was about displaying large-scale photographs of Gabriele Basilico’s work, the Milanese industrial landscape photographer, in urban settings. Inspired by large-scale urban advertising on building-size banners, the idea was to repurpose the medium to transform the city: creating portals into other worlds, transforming the environment, to make connections with other places, and people; fabricating a new reality by repurposing the public space into an art exhibition where visitors are immersed in towering imagery, changing visitors perception of their surroundings and own city.
Fast-forward to 2025: “Path of Liberty, That Which Unites US”, at Freedom Plaza in New York City, uses the same principles.
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Thesis Professor: Arduino Cantafora. Expert: Charles-Henri Favrod, Musée de l'Élysée. Maître du DA: Carlo Parmigiani.
Top image: Le Flon, captured on a Seitz panoramic Roundshot 35mm camera. Middle image: site model.
Gabriele Basilico's Photographs: 1. Milano, ritratti di fabbriche, via Barletta, 1978-1980 2. Antwerp, 1988 3. Le Tréport (Seine Maritime), 1985 4. Beirut, 1991 5. Merlimont Plage, 1985 6. Dunkerque, 1984
Gabriele Basilico (12 August 1944 - 13 February 2013, Milan, Italy). Photograph: Toni Thorimbert, Gabriele Basilico Sul, Set Del Film "Il Mio Domani" Di Marina Spada, Milano 2011 ©Toni Thorimbert.
