bringing light into the dark

Marco Frauchiger’s project “Bringing light into the dark” presents images and artifacts that are the result of the artist’s research journey into the “Secret War.” Between the late 1950s and the 1970s (1953/59–1975), a civil war took place in Laos between liberal royalists, conservatives, and communists, occurring simultaneously with the Vietnam War. This conflict was referred to as the “Secret War” because the Geneva Convention of 1962 had agreed to respect Laos’s neutrality, and the CIA consistently denied its involvement. During those years, more bombs were dropped on Laos by the American intelligence agency than during the entirety of World War II. Many areas are still not cleared of unexploded ordnance.

During his research trips, the artist noticed how the local population repurposed the metal from these bombs for everyday use. It’s a kind of alchemy—intended to ward off evil spirits and transform the source of misfortune into something positive. For the photo series, Frauchiger commissioned a local craftsman to build a camera obscura from bomb debris, in order to produce analog photographs. Each of these images is a unique piece.

At first, only black surfaces can be seen in the pictures. Only when backlit do barely recognizable historical sites of the “Secret War” become visible, subverting the representational promise of documentary image practices. At the same time, they subtly question the claim to truth that photojournalism and war reporting typically propagate.

Marco Frauchiger (born 1976) works in Bern, where he also studied. He is the recipient of the  Prix Photoforum 2022.

—Jana Haeckel

Installation view: Bellevue, Basel 2023 — light installation on 8-minute timer cycle

Installation view: Prix Photoforum, Photoforum Pasquart Biel/Bienne, 2022

Installation view, Kunsthaus Langenthal, 2022