While the exhibition Caméra(Auto)Contrôle takes note of a quarter century of policies regarding the spread of security videos throughout public space, the work of the pair of Zurich artists Jan Hofer & Severin Zaugg is here to remind us that it was in the early 1960s that the police began using the first radars and camera systems for monitoring roads. While photographs of speeding violations showing the face and license plate of the reckless driver remain confidential, the artists have managed to obtain photographs depicting empty roads, which the Zurich police unit in charge of the automatic cameras shoots to test and guarantee the effectiveness of the devices.
These semi-automatic photos are printed out whenever a collector buys an image. He or she obtains the latest picture recorded on the police servers.
J. Hofer *1988, Zurich, lives and works in Zurich and Stuttgart
S. Zaugg *1988, Basel, lives and works in Zurich
