Page 1 — Livio Burtscher

LIVIO BURTSCHER

OLD-ANDERMATT
& NEW-ANDERMATT
Alpine Field Research

Andermatt, Switzerland
26 photographs, 13 diptychs
produced in 2023

There is a town in the mountains of Switzerland called Andermatt that went through a process of change and growth because of its real estate development for tourists. After the partial departure of the military, Andermatt was hoping for visionary help which they found in the person of Samih Sawiris, an Egyptian-Montenegrin investor. Big parts of the town were bought off and a real estate development plan was approved by a large majority of the population. Despite this, the project has also been criticised. Only the center of the town was renovated, giving the impression that Andermatt should work as a presentable backdrop to the tourists. Other parts of the village were completely added and built out of the ground, what the people refer to as “NewAndermatt”.

This series of images intends to describe the clash between new and old Andermatt and to illustrate the contrast between these worlds. The images are showing the differing Architecture of Alt-Andermatt and Neu-Andermatt, focussing on the peculiarities of both ways of life in coexistence. On the one hand, New-Andermatt is seen by the inhabitants as „positive“, „beautiful“ and „admirable“, but on the other hand, it is also described as too „big“, „taking away air“, „overwhelming“ or „pushed forward too quickly“. Despite this, the residents have largely become accustomed to the spatial changes.

2025