lb. When art mediator Seline Fülscher first saw the images for her current project, she had to look twice. In one of the pictures, she recognized an old friend with whom she had worked in a sports shop around fifteen years ago: José Mari Urquiaga Polintan, a member of the Filipino community in Zurich, then 24 years old, had been captured by American photographer David Armstrong, to whom the Kunsthalle Zürich is dedicating an exhibition from 8 June – 15 September 2024.
It is more of a coincidence that this collection from the David Armstrong Archive is being exhibited in Zurich of all places. For several of the pieces, it is even the first time to be restored and presented publicly. José Mari had therefore not expected his portraits to be exhibited in a Zurich museum over three decades later. After all, his contact with the artist, who died in 2014, had broken off a long time ago.
Armstrong, who was mostly based in New York, was known for photographing his subjects in everyday and yet vulnerable poses. During the tour on July 4th, Seline Fülscher and José Mari presented the exhibition together. Among other things, visitors learned how the photos came about, which at the time were taken in Berlin Kreuzberg. According to José Mari, the years shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall were a magical, carefree time and he looks back on them fondly, even though he now feels at home in Zurich.
