All posts tagged: exhibits

“Imagine. Create. Shape. Arts & Crafts in Carouge” puts local artisans in the spotlight at the Musée de Carouge

Published by Elena

You’ll have noticed by now that I’m a big fan of the artisans of Carouge, the lovely Sardinian enclave that’s so close geographically and yet so far in terms of architecture, shopping, and “vibe” from neighboring Geneva. Many of these celebrated differences find their source in Carouge’s heyday as Geneva’s economic rival. Border trade made it a commercial hub and the population exploded (from 500 to 4,700 in the twenty years from 1772-1792) sparking an influx of diverse artisans to service its daily needs.

New Dutch Masters join Rembrandt at the Domaine de Penthes

Published by Elena

To coincide with the stunning exhibition Rembrandt in Geneva at the Domaine de Penthes until 23 October, Tête à Tête – Swiss Events has mounted a parallel exhibition entitled Dutch Art & Design, “Old Master, New Masters” which is featured at the Museum until Sunday, 25 September. The exhibition is of limited-edition works by photographer Hendrik Kerstens and designers Jurgen Bey, Joris Laarman and Marcel Wanders. It offers a contemporary vision of Dutch art and design as created by these “New Masters”. In a dedicated room visitors can also watch biographical videos of the artists as well as “making of” videos of key works from the exhibition.

Lausanne’s Olympic Museum brings hearts & minds closer to the real thing

Published by Elena

If like me you’ve been slow to fully embrace the Olympics Games after an endlessly negative media build-up however legitimate, then I recommend a visit to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne to help you get your Olympic mojo back before they’re over for another four years. Informative, inspiring and just plain fun, I found myself reliving so many special Olympic moments and personal memories from past Games that I came away appreciating all over again what the fuss is all about.

Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” returns to Cologny 200 years after its birth

Published by Elena

The weather on Lake Geneva in June 1816 was especially bad — we know what that’s like lately but rather than climate change being the culprit as it is today, a volcanic eruption in faraway Indonesia was to blame for the storms over Europe that Summer. (Well, in fact, the eruption did evoke catastrophic climate change for years after its eruption leading to widespread crop failure and mass hunger on the continent.) Torrential rain was proving tedious for five young visitors to the area — all exiles from scandal and debt in London — and one of them, their host one sodden evening at his rented digs, the Villa Diodati in Cologny, put down a challenge as a means of distraction: “We will each write a ghost story,” he said. Frankenstein: the first science fiction novel The works resulting from that competition would achieve literary acclaim and over time, none more so than that of 19-year-old Mary Godwin, the lover and soon-to-be wife of the renowned poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who was there along with their host, the infamous Lord Byron and the latter’s personal physician John William Polidori. It took some time for Mary …

“Mirrors” exhibition reflects on borders and urbanism, presenting Geneva from multiple perspectives

Published by Elena

The 25 open-air “Mirror” terminals dotting the Greater Geneva landscape until 30 June show the city and its environs from intriguing, multi-faceted perspectives and invite us to ponder the bigger issues of borders and urbanism and their effect on our communities. They’re also ‘heaven sent’ for photographers wanting to capture the city from a fresh point of view. Greater Geneva as the perfect urban specimen In the year 2020, two thirds of humanity will be city dwellers, up from one third in 1950. Greater Geneva, in its role as an international, world-class city and a hub for citizens who cross many borders to live and work here is a laboratory for the study of urban development. So believe the students and staff members of the six top schools comprising the Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (the University of Applied Sciences, Western Switzerland) or HES-SO. They have collaborated for months to mount an ambitious programme of events entitled L’Evénement HES/Frontières et Urbanité focusing on borders and urbanism that runs until 30 June and includes masterclasses, concerts, conferences and outdoor exhibitions. Many events are open to the public, some of which require prior registration. …

Immersed in color: Signac’s sublime art at the Hermitage till 22 May

Published by Elena

When it comes to art all you need say is “impressionist” for me to come running. Add an exhibition space in an elegant, 19th-century villa set in a wooded park with the French Alps as a distant backdrop and you’d best not get in my way as I come through. You might have guessed that I’m describing the exquisite exhibition underway at the Hermitage Foundation in Lausanne until 22 May of some 140 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings by master neo-impressionist painter Paul Signac (1863-1935). His works celebrate color, light, composition and technique in that unique and breathtaking way that make impressionist canvases (or neo-impressionists in this case) so cherished by art lovers. These works transform the everyday into something uplifting and otherworldly — “heavenly” may be a better way of saying it. In Signac, une vie au fil de l’eau nature and village scenes, sailing vessels, busy French ports and serene interpretations of Provencal life (before the tourist hordes descended) preoccupy Signac’s subject matter; his love of the sea and sailing, a personal passion, is evident throughout. One room is devoted to introducing visitors to the colour theories of the neo-impressionists, featuring paintings by …