Here: Hoselupf → “Schwingen”, a traditional form of wrestling in Switzerland, is a mostly male sport, yet since 1980 it has also been officially practised by women. In 2019, over a full season, Sabina Bösch follows and closely observes a world she did not know until recently. Her series Hoselupf, a vernacular term for the same sport, meaning “lifted by the pants”, literally throws the viewer into the sawdust circle of the fight.
Sabina Bösch
Photography
There: Humour and attention → The pictures are mostly black and white, allowing the body parts to blend together better and the pastoral motives and colours to slide into the background. The snapshots capture emotions, grips, embraces, backs, bodies that fight and faces that shine. Later in the book, the portraits of the wrestlers show them in their full power, self-conscious and playful, adopting heroic poses mostly associated with male characters. One cannot but be touched by the attention and humour which the photographer shares with her subjects.
Everywhere: Trends of change → Humour and bright colours appear to be Sabina Bösch’s way of investigating and sharing her engaged interest in new body languages and changing trends. This is a joyful foray into the unknown and uncertain, honoured with the second prize in the Young Swiss Talent Award for photography, which will enable her to dedicate herself to more documentary approaches to womxn-related topics. This is deeply present in the Hoselupf project, creating a sensibility for the unspecified difference.
Education → MA in Photography, ECAL, Lausanne; BA in Trends & Identity, ZHdK, Zurich
Based in Zurich
Based in Zurich
Project(s) → Hoselupf 2018–2019