MELK IMBODEN - Designer Portraits
till September 25th, 2005
In 1951 two Swiss and three Frenchmen founded AGI (Alliance Graphique International) in Paris with the objective of making high qualitative graphic design. The AGI expanded continuously and today ca. 300 selected designer personalities belong to the alliance.
Since 1951 an international AGI Design congress proceeds every year always in a different country. After Mexico City in 2000, Paris in 2001, San Francisco in 2002, Helsinki in 2003, and Peking in 2004, this year the AGI congress is taking place in Berlin for the first time from September 21st till September 25th 2005.
About ten years ago Melk Imboden began to portrait designer during numerous visits on different continents. Melk Imboden is member of the AGI for several years now and began to portrait designer personalities during his various journeys to cities like New York, San Francisco, Mexico City, Beijing, Moscow, Warsaw, Brno, Helsinki, Paris, Milan, or Berlin, where he also was busy as poster designer, as jury member, or guest professor. The result is a large work of several hundred exposures. A small selection of this work was shown for the first time three years ago in Luzerne in the training centre for media. Now the more enclosing and extended collection of this work is exhibited for the first time outside Switzerland at the Art Center in Berlin.
All photographs are on Barythpaper 30x40 cm, self heightened. It is a small assortment of the several hundred photographs enclosing work. Many of the designers are themselves members of the alliance AGI and are present during the congress in Berlin. Alongside Melk Imboden took photos of many great designer, poster designer or book designer, who don't belong to the alliance. A cross section of his photos is shown at the Art Center Berlin in cooperation with the embassy of Switzerland and the gallery DNA. In the gallery DNA the photographs of Melk Imboden are shown under the title "Time Pictures" from September 8th till September 17th 2005.
Melk Imboden born in 1956, Stans, lives in Central Switzerland. Studied graphic design at the University of configuration and art in Luzerne. He worked in Milan, Basel, and Zurich.
In 1992 he began to work as freelancer in the fields of graphic design and photography. He was invited numerous times to be a jury member and guest professor. Furthermore he exhibited his art exhibition posters continually international and was awarded several times.
2001 - 2003 guest professor for Visual Communication, Graphic Design and Photography at the University of configuration in Karlsruhe.
Since 2004 guest professor for Visual Communication, Graphic Design and Photography at the UdK (University of Arts) in Berlin.
Melk Imboden is member of Visarte (Artist Alliance of Switzerland) and of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale).
The exhibition at the Art Center opens on Friday, September 16th at 8:00 PM by the ambassador of Switzerland.
