PATRICIA LOW CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS MARIO TESTINO, CURATED BY SIMON DE PURY
Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad presents an exhibition by Mario Testino, curated by Simon de Pury, bringing together a focused selection of works from Testino’s ongoing project A Beautiful World, alongside a curated group of seminal fashion photographs.
The exhibition centres on Testino’s work in Switzerland, where his lens turns toward alpine rituals, ceremonial dress, winter customs, and rural life. These photographs extend the core concerns of A Beautiful World, a long-term project devoted to documenting cultural continuity and lived heritage, while grounding the series within a distinctly Swiss context. Here, clothing is not treated as fashion, but as memory, resistance, and social language, carried forward through ceremony and community.
Curated by Simon de Pury, the exhibition places these works in dialogue with a select number of Testino’s iconic fashion images, allowing viewers to trace the continuity of his photographic gaze across different registers. As de Pury observes, the exhibition reveals “a photographer who has always been attentive to presence and humanity, whether working in fashion or far beyond it.”
Swiss guild members wearing historic red ceremonial uniforms, photographed by Mario Testino as part of A Beautiful World: Switzerland.
Silvesterchlaus figure wearing handcrafted natural materials during a Swiss winter ritual, photographed by Mario Testino.
Alpine sheep with traditional bell, photographed in Switzerland by Mario Testino for A Beautiful World.
Traditional Swiss ceremonial costume with lace collar and structured headdress, photographed by Mario Testino for A Beautiful World: Switzerland.
Rather than separating fashion from cultural documentation, the exhibition highlights a shared sensibility that runs through Testino’s practice: an enduring attention to dignity, identity, and the power of portraiture as a means of connection. Across both bodies of work, portraiture becomes a way of observing how individuals inhabit tradition, modernity, and self-expression.
In its Swiss chapter, A Beautiful World explores how belonging, continuity, and national identity are expressed through ritual and adornment. From flower-adorned cows and historic guild members to Silvesterchlaus figures and regional folk costume, Testino blends portraiture with ethnographic observation, revealing a country where heritage is not only preserved, but actively performed with collective pride.
Mario Testino
Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad
31 January – 14 February 2026
Promenade 55, 3780 Gstaad, Switzerland