Daniele Buetti

Buetti’s oeuvre is intimately connected to the concept of the Society of the Spectacle as it was defined by French philosopher Guy Debord in 1967. The Spectacle refers to image-saturated mass media, which Debord recognised as a dominant economic power and went on to describe its effects on social developments. Although the term “mass media” was already being used in the 1960s, Debord refrained from using this word on purpose because he felt that the term had too neutral a connotation, opting instead for the term spectacle. According to Debord, the spectacle was used by capitalism to distract, and thereby manipulate, the masses. The historical context under which Debord was writing is especially important. The Algerian War between Algeria and France had taken place between 1954-62. This extremely brutal war, in which there were many civilian casualties and France deliberately used torture to suppress public unrest in both France and Algeria was contrasted with the increased emergence of advertising and popular mass media. Debord argued that the constant presence of advertisement contrasting with a stressful present also affect how people interact with each other.

Drawing on the theme of mass consumption and its impact on society, Buetti is particularly interested in the interplay between beauty and ugliness, beauty and violence/destruction, as well as the archetypal fear of abnormality, cult thinking and the loss of identity. One example of this is his Scars series. For this series, Buetti takes photos of models and tattoos commercial company names such as Chanel or Dior on the back of the photos. In this way, bulges are created that reminisce scars. These photos are then photographed again so that the fake scar looks real on the next print. In this sense, Buetti picks up on the phenomenon of doubt about authenticity that one often has when looking at advertising. There is also the wordplay "branding" - to market commercially, and "branding" livestock, or slaves. This play on words adds an extra dimension to the series.

Daniele Buetti is represented in many international art collections, such as the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Salzburg and the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Karlsruhe.

In 2003, a monograph on his work was published by Hatje Cantz with the collaboration of Christoph Doswald.  In 2008, another book was published by the same publisher under the name “Maybe You Can Be One of Us”.