Imagery of crowds and mass gatherings has been the focal point of Michel Comtes work for many years now. Particularly powerful are the yearly Easter blessings in the Vatican City; the papal conclaves with aerial views of all the gathered cardinals have not changed since the Middle Ages. From Shibuyas crossings to New Yorks Times Square; from the Hajj in Mecca, to Woodstock, the World Cup final, and the Italian Grand Prix; from the March on Washington with Martin Luther King, to Hong Kong in 2019-2020each of these places attracts enormous crowds approaching a point of imminent danger that have led to catastrophic events in the past. In November 2019 the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province; in the months since, our world has changed. Social distancing has become the new norm and our entire perspective towards gathering, meeting and closeness have taken on different meanings. Suddenly, images of crowds look unfamiliar. The dots are drifting apart.

Born in Zurich in 1954, the multimedia artist Michel Comte studied in France and England, and began his career in art restoration, specializing in contemporary art; his restoration works include those by Andy Warhol, Yves Klein and Miró. In 1979 Comte met Karl Lagerfeld who gave him his first commercial assignment for Chloé and later Chanel. He has since collaborated with Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair and Interview, and with brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Gianfranco Ferré, Calvin Klein, BMW, Ferrari and LVMH, among many others. Comte later traveled to conflict zones to raise funds for humanitarian projects such as "People and Places with No Name." In 2008 he met Ayako Yoshida and has since dedicated more time to art and personal projects; together they produced their first 3D feature film The Girl From Nagasaki in 2013. Comte opened "Neoclassic," his exhibition on the rise and fall of neoclassicism, at the National Gallery of Parma in fall 2016. He has completed four exhibitions from his "Light" series: at Museo Maxxi, Rome; La Triennale, Milan; Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing; and most recently at Dirimart, Istanbul. "Light" is a study of natural landscapes through large-scale sculptures, photography, video installations and projections, exploring the impact of environmental decline on the world's glaciers and glacial landscapes. Comte's books with Steidl include Aiko T (2000), Michael Schumacher: Driving Force (2003) and Light (2016).