This website is updated weekly, starting from 1.1.2024
Studio Shafei works closely with architects, cultural institutions, artists and businesses.
It was founded in 2012 by Kambiz Shafei in Basel. After studying Computer Sciences and Mathematics in Iran, Kambiz studied visual communication at HGK Basel where since 2014 he is a docent for photography at the Institute IDCE.
In 2024 he received his doctorate from the Kunstuniversität Linz for his practice-based project titled “New Material Presences in Photography: How Images and Architecture Construct and Deconstruct one another”.
Studio Shafei GmbH
St. Johanns-Vorstadt 64
4056 Basel
post@studioshafei.ch
Selected Clients:
Abteilung Kultur des Kantons Basel-Stadt
Atelier Peter Zumthor, Haldenstein
Ausstellungsraum Klingental
Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen
Caesar Zumthor Architekten
Christoph Merian Stiftung
Did Publications, Tehran
Erziehungsdepartement Basel-Stadt
Flavio Fermi at Ackermannshof
Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel
Herzog & de Meuron, Basel
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Basel
Istituto Svizzero
Kunsthalle Basel
Kunstmuseum Basel
Lindroos Architects
Luzerner Theater
Mori Meana Architects
Pedrocchi Architekten
Phaidon Press, New York
Sarina Scheidegger and Ariane Koch
Studio Balthasar Wirz
Stingray Editions, Atlantic Ocean
Universität Basel
Verlag Scheidegger und Spiess, Zurich
For internships please write to:
internship@studioshafei.ch
#
© Studio Shafei GmbH 2024
Website for Caesar Zumthor Architekten.
New Material Presences in Photography
New Material Presences in Photography explores the relationship between photography and the materiality of architecture. The research focuses on how architectonic materials are translated into photographs and how the medium of photography, in its different analog and digital forms, can help us understand architecture differently.
This PhD project works at the intersection of photographic practice as artistic research, theory of photography and philosophy, with the focus on the materiality of architecture. New Material Presences in Photography aims at challenging traditional understandings of the medium of photography as a tool for representation by finding methods of image simulation which can reframe our direct encounters with built space. This exploration does not aim at undermining the existing theoretical discourse of photography. It rather attempts to move beyond the traditional dualisms of the subject as the original and photograph as its second order copy by finding methods of engaging, practicing, and reflecting on the medium.
The dissertation uses Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction as its initial method of testing the relationship of architecture and its photograph through the “thesis of translatability” (Derrida 2010, IX). Afterwards, Brian Massumi’s reading of Simulation by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Manuel DeLanda’s New Materialism and Henri-Louis Bergson’s theory of time – together with other theoretical readings on architecture and photography – guide this project’s exploration of material presences in photography.
Alongside the written dissertation, a practice-based body of photographic simulations have shaped four installations exhibited during the course of the research. These installations investigate the Degerfelden sandstone used in the Basler Münster as their main case study. Throughout this research it becomes evident that photographs can be considered as entities with two Image and Material surfaces. The Intra-act (Barad 2007, 141) of these two surfaces can shape narratives, which add to our phenomenological encounters and in some cases go beyond our direct experience with architecture by providing information which we could have not known otherwise. This type of material photography can additionally result in breaking the linearity of time, pointing out a coexistence of pasts and presents embedded on the photographic surfaces simultaneously.
Combining practice-based and theoretical components, this thesis describes how signature-events (Derrida 2008, 20) of the Image Surface and the signature-forms (Ibid) of the Real Surface, which are spatialized and divisible, can closely align with the Bergsonian concept of Duration (Bergson 1950, 107–8). A Duration manifested in a form of intuitive presence on both architectural materials as well as their autonomous photographs.
Installation Shots at Multi Soft Konstanz, 2023.
Derrida, Jacques. 2010. Copy, Archive, Signature: A Conversation on Photography. edited by Gerhard Richter. Translated by Jeff Fort. Redwood City: Stanford University Press.
Barad, Karen. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.
Derrida, Jacques. 2008. Limited Inc. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Bergson, Henri. 1950. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. Translated by F. L. Pogson, M.A. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Text: Sarina Scheidegger
Dear to Me
Peter Zumthor in Conversation
18 booklets in a slipcase
444 pages English edition, 456 pages German edition
In the summer of 2017, as part of the program of the exhibition ‘Dear to Me’ at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Peter Zumthor held conversations with eminent philosophers, curators, historians, composers, writers, photographers, collectors, and craftsmen that he has been inspired by in his own work. These dialogues offer insight into the thoughts and life experiences of these fascinating personalities. Peter Zumthor’s equally serious and serene conversations with Anita Albus, Aleida Assmann, Marcel Beyer, Hélène Binet, Hannes Böhringer, Renate Breuss, Claudia Comte, Bice Curiger, Esther Kinsky, Ralf Konersmann, Walter Lietha, Olga Neuwirth, Rebecca Saunders, Karl Schlögel, Martin Seel, Rudolf Walli and Wim Wenders are collected in seventeen booklets together with an eighteenth complementary booklet documenting the Dear to Me exhibition in Bregenz.
Tituskirche, Benedikt Huber, Bruderholz, 1964, commissioned.
Zumthor Vacation Homes, Vals, commissioned.
Transitlager Münchenstein construction process, Bjarke Ingels Group, commissioned.
Studio Balthasar Wirz, Mehrfamilienhäuser, Arlesheim, commissioned.
Helsinki Dreispitz, Herzog & de Meuron, commissioned.
The Bond House, Pedrocchi Architekten, commissioned.
Gannet construction process, Caesar Zumthor Architekten, Basel, commissioned.
HGK Basel, Campus Werkstätten construction process, commissioned.
HGK Basel, Ateliergebäude construction process, commissioned.
Transitlager Münchenstein construction process, Bjarke Ingels Group, commissioned.
Website for the institute Digital Communication Environments' lecture series AnalogDigitalMaterial.
with Ted Davis.
Within Others' Sounds
Record cover for Caroline Ann Baur & Vanessà Heer, Jimena Croceri, Gerome Gadient, Marten Seedorf & Franziska Baumgartner, Romy Rüegger, Rodrigo Toro Madrid. Präsentiert von Stingray Editions.
BANG BANG
Translokale Performance Geschichte:n
Ein Ausstellungsprojekt von Revolving Histories/Performance Chronik Basel und Museum Tinguely
Text: Sarina Scheidegger
Website for Pedrocchi Architekten.
Notes on Hideouts, Vinyl Edition
This project was initiated by Rodrigo Toro Madrid and Sarina Scheidegger for Tsonami International Sound Art Festival in Chile, in collaboration with the program COINCIDENCIA by Pro Helvetia and Radio Lora. The invited artists - Franziska Baumgartner, Gerome Gadient, Vanessa Heer & Caroline Ann Baur, Flo Kaufmann, Stéphanie Rosianu - created sounds in relation to «Hideouts» referring to places which might really exist but also to a mindset, a spot which is imaginative and phantasmagorical. Hideouts» are places which can’t or shouldn’t be found, they are hidden and out of reach for the others but they are also calling for attention. With the «Hideout» comes the searching and seeking. «Hideouts» are much more than physical places, they are present in our way of thinking, in our imagination and (day)dreams. The sounds relate to hidden messages, hybrids of different languages, their translations and the empowerment they can create, they reveal spacial encounters and ruptured storytelling, countdowns of absence and collaborative processes of sound making.
Website for the institute Digital Communication Environments' lecture series titles Publishing.
with Ted Davis.
REUSE
Terms like reuse, recycling and upcycling are inseparable parts of today’s art and design discourse and practice. However, when looking back we realise that building upon our past – whether in the sense of material resources or in reworking ideas – has always been a significant part of creative art and design processes since ancient times. Today’s approach of reuse is often related primarily to the idea of sustainability, but as the examples of the lecture series show, reuse can address aspects such as cultural memory, heritage, technological development, care etc. IDCE’s spring lecture series explores the notion of Reuse by looking into its research and practice from the following 5 standpoints: INCHfurniture – Thomas Wüthrich, Sabine Hertig, Karen Amanda Moser, Teresa Dillon, Benjamin Gaulon.
Rosa & Louise – A Feminist Manifesto in Dialogues
The examination of the structures of feminist discourse forms the basis of the manifesto that is continuously rewritten by Ariane Koch and Sarina Scheidegger. The multilingual performance was shown in different stages and contexts as a performance – spoken by two performers – and as a poster edition. How can and does feminism be articulated in different cultures? How can we relate to it? Who is speaking? Who is allowed to speak? How are stereotypes and clichés reproduced and negotiated? Where are the intersections in discourse that differs depending on the national, geographic, historical, cultural, or social context in which we live – but is also similar in many ways? Where can we use the feminist perspective to establish general societal questions? How can feminism be a tool to broaden and renew history [for all of us]? On going poster series since 2013
Loneliness Kills Anna
Eine wundersame Expedition ins Innere von Alter, Krankheit und Einsamkeit
Suly Röthlisberger, Ursula Reiter, Vera Kappeler, Peter Conradin Zumthor
Eine alte Frau sitzt seit Jahren schwer behindert im Rollstuhl. Sie kann sich schlecht bewegen, das Sprechen fällt ihr schwer. Die soziale Isolation verändert ihre Wahrnehmung. Die Leere wirkt wie ein Hohlspiegel, die Realitäten verschieben sich. Die Einsamkeit der Frau wird monströser als ihre Krankheit. Einzig eine Betreuerin kommt regelmässig zu Besuch. Dann entspinnen sich existentielle Dialoge über das Leben im Vakuum, und durch alles Schwere schimmert fein der Humor. Es ist das erste Theaterstück des Schlagzeugers Peter Conradin Zumthor. Er zeichnet zusammen mit der Pianistin Vera Kappeler auch für die Live-Musik verantwortlich. Ein gleichberechtigtes Zusammenwirken von Licht, Text, Ton, Schauspiel und Raum lässt die Protagonistin wie unter dem Brennglas erscheinen.
Ausgezeichnet mit dem Kak Tapir Culture Award
MDes Basel
A selection of covers and posters for the Master of Design programm housed at The Institute for Digital Communication Environments at HGK Basel and School of Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).
10 years of CARAVAN
Series of Exhibitions of Young Art Text: Ariane Koch & Sarina Scheidegger
Kaserne Poster Series.
text: Hannah Weinberger
13
Poster Edition
For Ariane Koch and Sarina Scheidegger's Performance at Kunsthalle Basel, 2017
The performance «13» united thirteen monologues written by the artists and performed by thirteen performers during the time of thirteen days at Kunsthalle Basel. Each day one performer and one monologue was added. Beside the performance there was a poster edition consisting of thirteen posters which were shown in a daily change outside of the Kunsthalle, announcing the next character to be joined the performance. The edition was sold in the bookshop at Kunsthalle Basel. The text were later on published in the publication «13» with a text by Alice Wilke.
Performers: Ana Castaño Almendral, Esther Becker, Meret Bodamer, Anna Christen, Danny Exnar, Lucien Haug, Khadija Merzougue, Jürg Mumenthaler, Marcus Rehberger, Venus Electra Ryter, Julius Schröder, Denis Wagner, David Werner.
Exhibition poster for Kunsthalle Palazzo with
Vanessa Billy, Markus Gadient, Barbara Maria Meyer and Edit Oderbolz
AnalogDigitalMaterial
Poster for the Spring Semester Lecture Series
at the Visual Communication Institute of HGK Basel
The lecture series of the Institute for Visual Communication HGK FHNW Spring 2021, with the title AnalogDigitalMaterial, presents a series of communication, design, and art practices meandering between analog and digital processes. The outcomes of these individual journeys pose the question, in which sense there is materiality in digital environments, and in which form the digital can appear in materialized objects. This series conjures our current shared experience in remote education at Universities, as well as to the widely debated insight that materials provide an often-overlooked structure for the development of a field of contingencies in a creative process.
Poster for Double Editions at Liste Art Fair Basel.
Where
Promotional poster for the newly built Volta area of Basel.
Publishing
Poster for the Winter Semester Lecture Series