Seujet Complex, Geneva 600 single images, recorded from
15:30 to 17:29 with computer-controlled
SLR camera, January 12, 2013

Commissoned by Joerg Bader, Centre de la photographie, Geneva
for the exhibition Cherche Appartement

On a walk with Joerg Bader, director of the Centre de la photographie in Geneva, Spinatsch came up with the idea to shoot a panorama of the modernist Seujet building complex in Geneva, which had fascinated him for a long time because of its sheer size and sinister appearance. Bader immediately commissioned the panorama for a group show due to open in a few weeks. Later Spinatsch found out that Edward Snowden, the former CIA agent who had leaked top secret intelligence, had lived in this building while working for the NSA in Geneva. Although this was not the initial reason for photographing the building, the fact inevitably influences the way the image is read.

The easy set-up of the SLR camera made it possible to produce the panorama at short notice. The camera’s shorter focal length and the high resolution of the single images opened up new possibilities. This is the only panorama recorded in horizontal rows from the top to the bottom, recording the transition from day to night. For technical as well as formal reasons, the camera was vertically installed, but was programmed to record horizontally. Consequently, only horizontal views were selected for the panorama.

There are two versions of Snowden Habitat:
Version 1 is a site-specific panorama installation.
Version 2 is a framed inkjet print with production details and two sentences on Snowden’s activities in Geneva printed on the white border.
For the exhibition in Geneva, Spinatsch gave the curators a number of printed single images to freely exhibit, interpret, or leak.

Some of the single images from this recording are part of Sale & Pleasure Abstracts, a series of posters (120 × 80 cm).