Over a period of three years the photographer Christian Lutz accompanied a member of the Swiss Federal Council on diverse official occasions throughout the world. In Protokoll he observes the mise-en-sc ne of authority within the hierarchies to which the political decision makers and their delegations are subjected. He isolates the clich s that rule the world and records the unsaid and unobserved with his camera. His images show a reality that differs from the official photographic reports. The power that is presented in these strictly codified rituals gives way only briefly in fleeting gestures. Christian Lutz delimits a context in which the activities of the ministers, their deputies, and the personnel that orbits the political cosmos unfold. The photographs present a concentrated critique that calls into question a deeply ingrained system of representation and causes readers to alternate between laughter and astonishment.
