About

The photographic work of Roger Weiss delves deeply into contemporary Anthropic identity. Weiss, a Swiss photographer, graduated summa cum laude from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Italy, reelaborates human bodies through fragmentations, hybridisations, dilations, and photographic reconstructions, to reveal the archetypal form of the human being.

His work has been exhibited at exhibit spaces and art fairs in Europe and the US including: Ohsh Projects, London (UK), Gallery Sèbastien Lepeuve, Clichy (FR), Snap! Orlando Gallery, Orlando (US), Limonaia di Villa Strozzi, Florence (IT), Museo del Barocco (IT), Gervasuti Foundation, Venice (IT), Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut, Heidelberg (DE), Kulturzentrum Alte Kaserne, Winterthur (CH).
He has several publications in books and leading trade magazines including: The Opéra, Kerber publisher, book (DE), The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, Josef Weiss Private Press, book (CH), Doppelgänger, Image of the Human Being, Gestalten publisher, book (DE), Schön! Magazine (UK), Carnale Magazine (IT), Digit! Magazine (DE), Blink Magazine (Korea), and interviews including Exibart (IT), ArtsLife (IT), i-D (UK), Dazed (UK), Vogue Italia (IT), RSI (CH), NY ARTS (USA). His collaborations include brands such as Apple, Enterprise Japan, Amina Muaddi and Wolford.
From 2017 to 2020 he was the art director of Collectible DRY magazine.

Portrait

Selected Shows

Group Show: Ohsh Projects
Liquify
London, UK
co-curated by Jon Baker and OHSH Projects

Art Fair: MIA Milan Image Art Fair
LOOKING AT HER
Paola sosio contemporary art milan, IT
Curated by DOMENICO DE CHIRICO

Group Show: FUMES AND PERFUMES
FUMES AND PERFUMES 9.0
Stuttgart, DE (Catalogue)

Group Show: Gallery SÈBASTIEN LEPEUVE
21
Clichy, FR

Group Show: Museo Regionale della Bonifica di Cà Vendramin
L’energia della creatività
Rovigo, IT
Curated byi Melania Ruggini

Group Show: Limonaia di Villa Strozzi
Diari Urbani
Florence, IT
curated by Chiara Massini

Group Show: Museo del Barocco
LA BELLEZZA SOSPESA TRA VISIONE E REALTà
Noto, IT (catalogue)
curated by Chiara Massini

Art Fair: Photissima Art Fair
Welcome to the jungle!
Torin, IT
Curated by Famiglia Margini gallery Milan, IT

Solo Show: PArCo | Padiglione Arte Contemporanea
Cyclical Time
Casier, IT
Curated by Chiara Massini

Group Show: Gervasuti Foundation
SCREAMING SCREEN
Venice, IT

Solo Show: Association Oltre la Moda, Spazio Luigi Salvioli artist representatives s.r.l. LULÙ
Milan, IT
Curated by Luigi Salvioli

Solo Show: Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut
Sospension
Heidelberg, DE
Curated by Jakob J. Köllhofer

Group Show: Kulturzentrum Alte Kaserne
Start 2
Winterthur, CH
Curated by Iren Tanner

Selected Artwork

Hysteria
Human Dilatations
Flat Humans
Genealogy of a Body
Survey of Human Map
Intimate Archive
Cyclical Time
Be Two
I am Flesh

Selected Interviews

Magazine: Collater.al
LE HUMAN DILATATIONS DI ROGER WEISS
7 July 2023, IT
Text by Giorgia Massari

Blog: Exibart
OTHER IDENTITY #49. ALTRE FORME DI IDENTITÀ CULTURALI E PUBBLICHE: ROGER WEISS
Issue 49, 17 feb. 2023, IT
Interviewer: Francesco Arena

Newspaper: ArtsLife
ROGER WEISS: RIELABORARE IL CORPO ALLA RICERCA DEL SUO ARCHETIPO
the cultural revolution online, 19 Jan. 2023, IT
Interviewer: Rebecca Delmenico

Magazine: Carnale Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Issue 3, 10 pages + a limited edition poster of 100,
size 203x140cm. Sept. 2022, IT
Interview by Lorenzo Ottone

Magazine: SFG Magazine
THERE ARE NO IDEAS THAT ARE NOT CON- NECTED WITH PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, DESIRES AND FEARS
12 Feb. 2022, UA
Interviewer: Sergey Gutakovsky
Translation: Angelina Petrova
Editor: Sergey Fomkin

Magazine: Swarm Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
02 Sept. 2021, Prague, Czechia
Interview by Markéta Kosinová

Podcast: SPREAKER Podcast
ROGER WEISS E L’ARTE DEL KINTSUGI
00:12:34, 02 July 2021, IT
by Alessio Bottiroli
On The Nature Of Light
Un podcast di e sulla fotografia

Magazine: I-D
I CORPI DISTORTI ED EMANCIPATI NEGLI SCATTI DI ROGER WEISS PER LA COLLEZI- ONE AMINA MUADDI X WOLFORD
29 July 2021, IT
TEXT by Carolina Davalli

Blog: The Dummy’s Tales
ROGER WEISS, IL CORPO ANARCHICO
08 Feb. 2021, IT
TEXT by Francesca Interlenghi

Magazine: Art Super Magazine
ROGER WEISS: EATING, THE ACT OF CONFIDENCE
Jan. 2018, IT
Interview by Annalisa Scandroglio

Magazine: D’Scene Magazine
THE PERSPECTIVE OF ROGER WEISS
4 pages, Dec, 2017, UK
Interview by Sav Liotta

Magazine: Digit! Magazine
AUSWEITUNG DER KOMFORTZONE
8 pages, Oct/Nov 2016, DE
Interview by Von Peter Schuffelen

Magazine: Hestetika Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
8 pages, Oct. 2016, IT
Interview by Valentina De’ Mathà

Magazine: Dazed
THESE PHOTOGRAPHS EXPLORE NEW PER- SPECTIVES OF FEMALE BEAUTY
26 June 2016, UK
Interview by Ione Gamble

Blog: FotoRoom
HUMAN DILATATIONS: Roger Weiss Creates Mind-Blowing Portraits of Dilated Female Bodies
02 May 2016, IT

Rubrique: Les Blogs DE l’ART HELVÈTIQUE CONTEMPORAIN
UN HOMME EN MOUVEMENT: PORTRAIT DE L’ARTISTE DE THURGOVIE ROGER WEISS
23 July 2015, CH
Interview byJ-Paul Gavard-Perret
Rubrique des arts plastiques et de la littérature en Suisse

Magazine: Vogue Italia
ROGER WEISS
05 April 15, IT
Interview by Alessia Glaviano

TV: RSI, Cult Tv
ROGER WEISS
03 March 2014, CH

Magazine: Ticino Welcome Magazine
VOGLIO SCOPRIRE NUOVI TERRITORI DA ESPLORARE E RACCONTARE
6 pages, Sept/Nov, 2013, CH

Magazine: Blink Magazine
ROGER WEISS
14 pages + Cover, 2012, Korea

Magazine: NY Arts magazine
I AM FLESH
1 page, Summer 2011, NY

Magazine: Twill magazine
35 AN ETHMOGRAPHIC PROJECT
10 pages, June 2010, FR
TEXT by Adriano Zamperini

Magazine: Fotocomputer Magazine
ROGER WEISS
Issue 67, 6 pages, April 2005, IT

Special Projects

Enterprise Japan
Carnale Magazine
Learnn
Apple
Collectible DRY
Cosha
Wolford｜Amina Muaddi
Camilla Sparksss
Schön! Magazine

Selected Publications

BOOK: Seltmann Publisher
FUMES AND PERFUMES
10 pages, 18 Jan. 2024, DE
Herausgeber / Editors: Frank Bayh & Steff Rosenberger-Ochs, Peter Franck, Bernd Kammerer, Monica Menez und Yves Noir

MAGAZINE: WeAr Magazine
We Are One
Issue 75, 1 page, March 2023. IT
Enterprise Japan FW23 Campaign

BOOK: Dumont Publisher
I SEE VULVAS EVERYWHERE
1 page, 18 July. 2023, DE
By Lisa Frischemeier

Book: Kerber Publisher
THE OPÉRA
10 pages, 14 Nov. 2022, DE
Edited by Matthias Straub Designed by Steffen Knöll Designed by Sven Tillack
Limited anniversary issue of The Opéra – Magazine for Contemporary Nude Photography – including its most famous positions of the past as well as new views on the human body

Magazine: Carnale Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Issue 3, 10 pages + a limited edition poster of 100,
size 203x140cm. Sept, 2022, IT

MAGAZINE: The Opéra Magazine
THE HUG
Volume X, 10 pages, 12 July 2021, DE

Magazine: D’Scene Magazine
THE PERSPECTIVE OF ROGER WEISS
4 pages, Dec, 2017, UK

MAGAZINE: The Opéra Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Volume VI, 8 pages, Oct. 2017, DE

MAGAZINE: Schön Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
Issue 33, 10 pages, Oct. 2017, UK

BOOK: Josef Weiss Private Press
THE SONG OF SONGS, WHICH IS SOLOMON’S, 2016, CH

Magazine: Digit! Magazine
AUSWEITUNG DER KOMFORTZONE
8 pages, Oct/Nov 2016, DE

Magazine: Hestetika Magazine
HUMAN DILATATIONS
8 pages, Oct. 2016, IT

Magazine: Ticino Welcome Magazine
VOGLIO SCOPRIRE NUOVI TERRITORI DA ESPLORARE E RACCONTARE
6 pages, Sept/Nov, 2013, CH

Magazine: Blink Magazine
ROGER WEISS
Cover + 14 pages, 2012, Korea

BOOK: Gestalten Publishers
DOPPELGÄNGER, IMAGE OF THE HUMAN BEING
2 pages, Jan. 31, 2011, DE

Magazine: NY Arts magazine
I AM FLESH
1 page, Summer 2011, NY

Magazine: Twill magazine
35 AN ETHMOGRAPHIC PROJECT
10 pages, June 2010, FR
TEXT by Adriano Zamperini

Magazine: Fotocomputer Magazine
ROGER WEISS
Issue 67, 6 pages, April 2005, IT

2015｜Vogue Italia

Roger Weiss

Vogue Italia, 050415, IT
Interview by Alessia Glaviano

The body feels, it has its own language, which is not the limited verbal one, but the far richer one of the senses and feelings. You can come close to a body, look at it, touch it and smell it but the body cannot be read: like art, it belongs to the silent realm of moods and emotions.

It is perhaps the impossibility of “reading” the body, alongside its being at the core of mechanisms related to urges and desires, that has fascinated the humankind since the dawn of time, so much so that it has been chosen as favourite subject of investigation in paintings and cave engravings.

Reproduced, studied and dismembered, the body is the starting point of pictorial writing, of art: from Cèzanne to Picasso to the breaking of the human figure of Cubist artists like De Chirico, Matisse and Bacon down to the more recent Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville, many are the artists that devoted their search to the primordial image.

It is in this field that we should place the investigation initiated by Roger Weiss, a Swiss artist who graduated with the highest grade from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan. I was familiar with Weiss’ work titled “I am Flesh” in which the artist’s obsession with cataloguing, repetition and breaking down is undoubtedly present but, in my opinion, it is with “Human Dilatations” that Roger Weiss makes real progress into his expressive maturity. In this work, alongside the previously explored themes, new ones come into play and, in particular, through the deformation and distortions a notable signature style and aesthetic search emerges, even though this may yet not be totally conscious.

Here is below my interview with Roger Weiss:

What is the inspiration and thinking behind Human Dilatations?

In Human Dilatations, I gave substance to my vision of the woman while maintaining a certain level of detachment from the beauty stereotypes of our times. Initially, I drew inspiration from primordial figures like the Venus figurines dating back to the Palaeolithic period and their symbolic meaning, to then initiate a broader and freer journey, which I embarked on in search for my idea of perfection – my contemporary totem. Human Dilatations is born out of subjects that are fragmented and later reassembled. In a fashion similar to the Kintsugi Japanese technique (meaning: golden repair), I work on fragments and photograms that I assemble and harmonize into large format works in which the body, in contrast with its vanishing head, becomes the absolute protagonist. In the precisely studied positions of the subjects I use for my works, the position of the head is always only hinted at, which deprives each work of the identity of the portrayed subject, thereby changing it to a figure that can be ascribed to all women and none in particular.

How did it happen that you chose photography as a means of expression?

Photography is still something I feel conflicted. Times and times again I tried to fall in love with it without ever accepting the feeling of living it as an extension of myself. It is rather a tool that allows me to maintain a sufficient level of detachment from what goes on around me and to investigate further, beyond my limits. I recall three distinct moments that led me to start expressing myself using such medium. I received my first Nikon from my father during my childhood; this unveiled a pleasure for the object in itself rather than the use I could have made of it. The desire to embrace it came later through an image linked to my teenage years and that has not left me since. One night I woke up from my bed and stopped to observe the lying body of a woman: my first instinct was to portray her in her natural beauty, but I resisted it as I would have woken her up. Since then I embraced photography as a means to approach and capture fragments of the lives of all those people that accompanied me through my journey by offering me a part of them/theirs. That period opened me up to a reality that would have left an indelible mark on my following works, starting from I am Flesh. Since then I learned about and shared fragments of existences marked by suffering I had no experience of. Physical violence, sexual and psychological abuse suffered and endured by those same young women that I deemed carefree and that had, instead, learned to fight pain through their desire to react and overcome it.

You often talk of beauty standards dictated by society…I wholly agree but don’t you think that there is something in beauty, in the harmony of shapes and lines, which we are drawn to in a way that is utterly instinctive?

I believe that I am an aesthete and naturally susceptible to what is currently thought of as beauty. Each period has its own standards and I believe that this is necessary to evolution, to define limits that are in turns demolished in order to create new and broader ones. The question of beauty is rooted in our deepest self and it is decisive, in our most primeval sphere, in determining what triggers our desire: the driving engine behind the achievement of everything that requires effort. In my mind, the direction for an artist is the one synonymous with dedication to the search for alternatives to the dominant thoughts in our society while remaining loyal to those same existential questions that have accompanied us since the day of reason – who we are, what is the sense of our lives, where are we going ….

I also seem to see an aesthetical evolution between I am Flesh and Human Dilatations. What do you think?

The goals behind I am Flesh and Human Dilatations embrace different journeys. In the first, I wanted to focus the attention on the female physiognomy leading to mapping that can be traced literally inch by inch. They are large format works in which I invite the viewer to visually explore 35 bodies rich in minute details, thereby offering them an almost tactile experience. Young women who, having accepted the challenge of a close-up view of their body, openly bare it to the viewer and, alongside it, offer a contemplation of their life and personal experiences. This is the reason why I opted for a format that entailed a frontal position with the arms behind the head and not in front, which would have symbolized closure and blocking. Every single detail of the body was “acquired” in a photographic manner to then be reassembled, piece by piece, by reinterpreting the original proportions of the owners whilst trying to leave out any potential traces of my own artistic contribution. As most of my investigation, each work is made up of hundreds of photograms assembled together. This method of working serves two goals that are fundamental to me: the first is about ensuring that each work preserves a wealth of photographic information that would be otherwise impossible to obtain; the second is linked to the possibility of creating distortion and heightened perspectives by using a variety of shooting angles and through the way I chose to assemble the photograms. Such distortions were then used to create Human Dilatations – an observation on the contemporary man minus two elements that characterize his quest: physical perfection and the power/role of the mind. Each image represents, as a matter of fact, a body with distorted proportions in some of its parts and that dominates over the head, which wanes without leaving traces behind. Unlike I am Flesh, in Human Dilatations I let my vision take form and guide the creation of this project that I’m still developing and that is, first and foremost, about a way of seeing.

Do you think that the body is in some way the primordial image? Do you think that the body/experience can be represented?

In the body I see the tangible experience of who we are, without which we would only be the mere product of an always moving evolutionary process far from the primordial image. In order to turn it into a physical archetype, I look for a starting point in it, for something primordial towards which my work is constantly moving, moulding the figure until it reveals its essence.