Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler

Over the past thirty years, Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler have been presenting their contemplation of society, recollection and history via photographs and video installations. Gregor’s Room is a three-part project based on Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915). These artists transformed their Berlin studio to resemble the room in which Gregor Samsa, the hero of the famous novella, lives as a recluse when he mutates into an insect. In each part of the trilogy, the room undergoes a transformation: First it is emptied, then dismantled and finally renovated by a male character. Festival Images Vevey presents the last part of the series. Gregor’s Room III shows a lonely man, secluded in a room where everything needs to be redone. The monumental format of this image covers the facade of Vevey’s former prison. The towering perspective accentuates the impression of confinement, and strangely echoes the building’s former purpose as well as the general lockdown the world experienced in the spring of 2020.