Flooded Cathedrals

Once a year, Switzerland's water reservoirs, which are hidden deep in the earth, are emptied and cleaned. On precisely these days, Silvio Maraini photographed the then empty, abstract and simultaneously sublime-looking rooms.

The photographs are of captivating beauty. Sublime temples, supports like church pillars and an apparently oversized vault. As a viewer, one involuntarily wonders where one can marvel at these «flooded cathedrals». From the outside, their existence is usually only revealed by the entrance door to a shaft. Silvio Maraini stepped through this inconspicuous door and documented "the monuments of civilization": water tanks that are hidden deep in the earth so that we have cool drinking water. However, the most important thing is missing from the pictures, the purpose of these containers – the water is missing. In this way, the photographer opens up a space for us that we would never have been able to see in this way.