First Cuts

First Cuts shows 15 photographic appropriations that artist Harald F. Müller realized for the first time in Switzerland’s tallest building: the Prime Tower in Zürich, designed by architects Gigon/Guyer. Applied by means of a perforated grid onto sound absorbing metal panels on the building’s interior walls, the re-photographed motifs depict a series of 'firsts' from the worlds of technology, sports, and culture. Evoking nostalgia for human faith in progress, they also point with their references to CERN and Constructivism to cutting-edge research and timeless modernity. These artworks refuse to fufill merely a passive decorative function, making instead their own architecture-related statement. The book follows the same principle by invoking cosmological references and presenting itself as an independent work rather than merely explaining and illustrating. Essays by Gerd Blum and Johan Frederik Hartle describe the role First Cuts played in the development of Harald F. Müller’s oeuvre, focusing on abstraction and atomism.