Jules Spinatsch: Davos Is a Verb, Paperback

A photographic account of an Alpine town's extreme servitude to the World Economic Forum

Every January, for four days, a small town in the Swiss Alps is transformed into a Potemkin village. The World Economic Forum brings heads of state, politicians and activists to Davos, followed by global corporations who use the venue for international appearances, informal receptions and lobbying. The short-term demand for free, playable rooms, space and accommodation has far-reaching consequences: shops and apartments are vacant for most of the year in order to be rented out for horrendous sums during the event. In 2020, Facebook erected a temporary two-story pavilion, while at the same time a bookstore disappeared completely from the main street.

Davos Is a Verb is the photographic documentation of this madness. Photographer Jules Spinatsch (born 1964) makes Davos visible as a fleeting world in which public space is reinterpreted and everything is in flux.