Klaus Pichler and René Groebli

Klaus Pichler »THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER«

Esotericism is only one of several 'alternative' belief systems which claim to have discovered their own model of 'truth'. They explain the increasingly complex world we live in by simplifying spiritual, political or pseudo scientific theories. These models of 'truth' – no matter how speculative or irrational they may be – are finding new followers mainly through Social Media forums, enabling them to grow into mass movements which perfectly fit into the current 'post truth era'.

For a period of two years, Klaus Pichler immersed himself into the scene by pretending to be a fanatic esotericist. He joined online forums, attended esotericist fairs and gatherings, familiarized himself with relevant theories, ordered products and made use of services. This enabled him to gain an inside view of the irrational world of esotericism, filled with remote healing, aura sprays and unicorn essences. In the process, he witnessed a mixture of credulity, quackery and betrayal.

The result of Klaus Pichler's approach is the series ‘This will change your life forever’ which consists of pictures of products, re-staging of images found on online forums and visualizations of esotericist theories. Some names have been changed but all products are genuine and all quoted texts are authentic. Nothing in this project is fake, or, not faked by him at least.

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René Groebli »EARLY WORK«

In 1943 René Groebli starts to take photographs with his father's new Rolleiflex camera. Discovering his passion for the medium, he decides to become a professional photographer. Up to 1955 he produces countless stories; from artistic projects to travels, reportages and portraits of people such as Le Corbusier, Charlie Chaplin or Robert Frank. During this decade he achieves international success with his two books "Rail Magic" and "The Eye of Love" and the participation in Edward Steichen's seminal exhibition "The Family of Man".

With "Early Work" AnzenbergerGallery will present a comprehensive overview of the incredible trove of images of the today 90-year old photographer produced from 1945 - 1955.