Philipp Schaerer

Philipp Schaerer (born 23 December 1972) is a Swiss artist active in the fields of photography and computer art. His works are represented in various collections of renowned museums, including the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM), among others. Since 2014, Schaerer has been a guest professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and teaches digital design in the Department of Architecture's "Art and Architecture" program.

Life
Philipp Schaerer was born in Zurich on 23 December 1972. He spent his youth in the cantons of Zurich and Bern, where he attended the gymnasium in Thun. From 1994 to 2000, he studied architecture at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

After completing his studies, Schaerer worked at the Herzog & de Meuron architecture firm in Basel. During this time, he created visualizations for many significant projects by Herzog & de Meuron, making a pioneering contribution to the field of digital architectural visualization beyond national borders. Starting from 2003, Schaerer worked at Herzog & de Meuron as a Knowledge Manager. In this role, he was responsible for developing digital strategies and concepts to improve internal workflows and integrate digital information technologies into project development. Concurrently with his position at Herzog & de Meuron, he led the postgraduate program in Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) at the Department of Architecture at the ETH Zurich from 2003 to 2008.

Since 2008, Schaerer has worked as an independent artist. He currently resides and works in Zurich and Steffisburg.

Work
Schaerer's work explores the fragile relationship between objects and their pictorial representation, incorporating information technology as a central element. His engagement with digital processing techniques is a key aspect of his creative process. His works consist of constructed (image) worlds that address the increasingly blurred boundary between digital image worlds and physical objects.

Schaerer gained recognition with his first series, "Bildbauten", which was awarded as the best independent work in the "Swiss Photography" exhibition in 2008 and later exhibited internationally. This series marked a departure from the visual aesthetics he had created as an architect in the early 2000s for Herzog & de Meuron's competition entries. The "Bildbauten" series, designed from various surfaces, avoids the seductive power of three-dimensionality, atmospheric lighting, and people. They have their own existence and are not representatives of planned or completed buildings. Yet, one is tempted to believe they could exist in reality. The artist consciously plays with the deception of photorealistic aesthetics or deconstructs them.

Schaerer's works are predominantly created in the digital realm. Using various techniques, he creates virtual artifacts such as objects, buildings, or landscapes. His digitally created realities appear with subtle coherence, combining subject and representation into impressive depictions between reality and fiction. The foundation for many of his works is his digital image archive, which serves as important "raw material" for his image-based works.

Schaerer's works are now featured in numerous private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) in Chicago, the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, and the Fotomuseum Winterthur, as well as in the collections of individual art museums in Switzerland. In 2017, Schaerer contributed artistically to the Chicago Architecture Biennial and in 2019 to the Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa.

Exhibitions (Selection)

 * 2022: Philipp Schaerer. Dissected Nature, solo show, Kunstmuseum Olten, Switzerland
 * 2021: Landscape – explored, interpreted, constructed, group show, Kunst im Trudelhaus, Baden, Switzerland
 * 2021: The Closet. Phantoms of Reality, solo show, in collaboration with Reto Steiner, Satellit Art Space, Thun, Switzerland
 * 2021: Memory – On memory and forgetting in unusual times, group show, Kunstmuseum Olten, Switzerland
 * 2019: Offshoots, solo show, Aff Space, Bern, Switzerland
 * 2019: The unobtrusive Beauty of the Banal: Anonymous architecture between reality and abstraction, solo show, Palacio del Condestable, Pamplona, Spain
 * 2019: What is Ornament, group show, Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal
 * 2019: Fiction and Fabrication, group show, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal
 * 2018: Coding The World, group show, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
 * 2018: Drifting Buildings, group show, Kunst Galerie Fürth, Fürth, Germany
 * 2018: Infosphere, group show, Centro Nacional de las Artes CENART, Mexico City, Mexico
 * 2017: Make New History: A Love of the World, group show, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, USA
 * 2015: Globale: Infosphere, group show, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany
 * 2015: Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture, group show,Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA
 * 2013: Concrete: Architecture and Photography, group show, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
 * 2012: Obsessions, group show, La Filature, Mulhouse, France
 * 2012: Transformator: Roger Boltshauser with images by Philipp Schaerer, group show, Architekturgalerie Berlin, Germany
 * 2009: Bildbauten: Architectural imagery by Philipp Schaerer, solo show, Berlage Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
 * 2009: All over the place, group show, New York Photo Festival, New York, USA

Selected Publications
Books
 * Dominik Lengyel, Philipp Schaerer: Architectural fiction: Visualising new realities. In: Urs Hirschberg, Ludger Hovestadt, Oliver Fritz (Eds.): Atlas of Digital Architecture. 1st edition. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2020, pp. 285–322.
 * Philipp Schaerer: Free your Imagination. In: Andri Gerber, Ulrich Götz (Eds.): Architectonics of game spaces: The spatial logic of the virtual and its meaning for the real. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2019, ISBN 978-3-8376-4802-7, pp. 95–110 (online).
 * Stephan Lando, Marina Montresor (Eds.): Defining Criteria. Quart Verlag, Lucerne 2018, ISBN 978-3-03761-172-2 (German edition), ISBN 978-3-03761-173-9 (English edition), pp. 146–172.
 * Jesús Vassallo (Ed.): Seamless: Digital Collage And Dirty Realism In Architecture. 1st edition. Park Books, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-03860-019-0, pp. 69–112.
 * Reto Geiser (Ed.): Philipp Schaerer: Bildbauten (expanded English edition). Standpunkte Verlag, Basel 2016, ISBN 978-3-9524577-0-2, 96 pages (with contributions by Nathalie Herschdorfer, Martino Stierli, and Philipp Ursprung).
 * Philipp Schaerer: Objets Trouvés – The Beauty of Everyday Objects. LAPIS, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 2015, ISBN 978-3-9524577-0-2 (online).
 * Ulrich Müller (Ed.): Transformator – Roger Boltshauser with images by Philipp Schaerer. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8030-0761-2.
 * Reto Geiser (Ed.): Philipp Schaerer: Bildbauten. Standpunkte Verlag, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-9523540-4-9, 80 pages (with contributions by Nathalie Herschdorfer, Martino Stierli, and Philip Ursprung).

Articles and Essays
 * Jesús Vassallo: Of Objects and Images. In: Oris. Nos. 124, 125, 2020, pp. 292–303.
 * Maximilian Treiber: Types from the Reservoir. Image Pairs and Montage as Design Methodology in Architecture. In: Wolkenkuckucksheim. No. 38, 2019, pp. 100–101 (online).
 * Jesús Vassallo: Epics in the everyday: Photography, architecture and the problem of realism. 1st edition. Park Books, Zurich 2019, pp. 303–307.
 * Philipp Schaerer: Gebaute Bilder. In: Domus. German edition. No. 23, Ahead Media Verlag, Berlin January/February 2017, ISSN 2195-7681, pp. 154–159.
 * Pedro Gadanho: Tableau Edifiant – Architectural Fiction in Contemporary Photography. In: DAMn°. No. 33, 2012, pp. 62–64.
 * Philipp Schaerer: Bildkonstrukte: Architektur und Digitale Bildverfahren. In: Trans Magazin (ETH Zurich). No. 19, 2011, pp. 68–75.
 * Marcella Aquila: Penetrable Buildings. In: FFWMAG. No. 24, 2011, pp. 36–43.
 * Fanny Léglise: Philipp Schaerer. In: A'A – L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui. No. 383, 2011, pp. 47–50.
 * Jorge Nunes: Una Arcquitetos. Philipp Schaerer. In: J.A. No. 240, 2010, pp. 74–79.
 * Jean Tourette: Philipp Schaerer: Photographie et Architecture Fictionelle. In: Kiblind. No. 33, 2010, pp. 12–13.
 * Caroline Bouige: Quand le bâtiment. In: Étapes. No. 184, 2010, pp. 6–7.
 * Eva Pelaez: Philipp Schaerer: A question of reality. In: Rooms Magazine. No. 3, 2010, pp. 82–83.
 * Salomon Frausto: Bildbauten: Constructing Architectural Imagery. Philipp Schaerer. In: Hunch. Nai Publishers, Berlage Institute. No. 14, 2009, pp. 12–27.
 * Sascha Renner: Glamour war gestern – Die Plat(t)form will Europas talentiertesten Fotonachwuchs finden. In: Monopol. No. 3, 2009, pp. 14–15.
 * Martin Jäggi: Die Fotografie nimmt Abschied von alten Gewissheiten. In: Tages-Anzeiger. January 27, 2009, p. 41.
 * Terri Peters: Philipp Schaerer talks about photographs, photorealism and the new "real". In: Mark. No. 15, pp. 144–151.
 * Walter Keller: Bildbauten, Bilder von Philipp Schaerer. In: Du. No. 787, 2008, pp. 40–47.