Charivari - Photographs by Charles Fréger

With his "Wild Man" project, which he began in 2000 and continues to this day, French photographer Charles Fréger made masks from all over Europe visible and attracted widespread attention. The figures move between menace, fascination and power. Fréger also repeatedly encountered figures that triggered laughter rather than fear - a spontaneous reaction that is perhaps more precious today than ever. For just as the wild is a force of strength and ambivalence, laughter is also a force: archaic, comforting, unpredictable. It releases, disarms, shifts order, but can also hurt and exclude.

For his solo exhibition at Zeughaus Teufen, we have traveled with Fréger through Switzerland over the past two winters - to carnivals and rituals where laughter, mockery and exuberance drive away evil spirits or winter. The exhibition also shows photographs of masks and figures from all over Europe. It presents a fascinating interim result of a project that Fréger continues to pursue on his travels.
In today's world, where the world itself seems grotesque and exaggerated, the comic takes on a new poignancy. This is precisely why laughter remains necessary - together, sometimes at others, and above all at ourselves.
"Charivari" reminds us: laughter unites. Laughter liberates.

Laughter creates space for a different view of the seriousness of the situation - and of the deeply human.

The exhibition is accompanied by a postcard book with impressive photographs of Charles Fréger's trip to Switzerland. It is available from the museum for 15 francs.


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.