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  • Carte d'invitation
     

From October 20, 2009
to January 31, 2010

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2008
Competition of the Federal Office of culture

Commissioned by the Federal Department of Home Affairs, in 1999 the Federal Office of Culture's Art and Design Department began organizing a yearly competition under the heading "The Most Beautiful Swiss Books".
This year, Swiss creators, publishers and printers of books submitted all of 395 publications; thirty-two of these have been honoured as the most beautiful Swiss books for the year 2008 (a list of the winning titles is appended).

 

Instead of being limited to a display of the award-winning books, for the first time in the history of this competition, all 395 works submitted in 2008 are to be included.


  • Andrea Branzi
    Stool, 2007
    Base Vitra by Georges Nelson and birchwood seat
    18 x 65 x 79 cm
    Courtesy Galerie Kreo
    © Photo Fabrice Gousset
     

  • Peter Marigold
    "Flauna Plain", 2007
    Shelves
    Plywood and wooden boards
    160 x 70 cm
    © Courtesy Fat Galerie
     

  • Yvonne Fehling and Jennie Peiz, Stuhlhockerbank, 2007-2008, oak, oil finish, models’ combination
    © Photo Horst Bernhard, Hardheim
     

  • Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
    "Vegetal Chair Blooming, 2008
    Batched-dyed polyamide
    81 x 60 x 55 cm
    Edited by Vitra AG, Switzerland
     

  • Gudrun Lilja / Studiobility
    "Rocking Beauty", 2006
    Rocking chair
    Polycarbonate sheet, plywood and aluminium, water-jet cut
    Courtesy Toolsgalerie
    © Photo Gudrun Lilja/ Studiobility
     

  • Tokujin Yoshioka
    "Bouquet", 2008
    Armchair
    Injected-flame retardant polyurethane foam
    77 x 83 x 83 cm
    Moroso Milano
    © Photo Alessandro Paderni–Studio Eye
     

  • Eero Aarnio
    "The Tree", 2008
    Space divider
    Rotomolded polyethylene
    181 x 125 x 37 cm
    Photo Rauno Johansson
     

  • Ineke Hans
    "Forest for The Trees Hallstand", 2005
    Coat stands
    Lacquered metal
    195 x 70 cm
    © Lensvelt Forest for the Trees designed by Ineke Hans
     

  • Piero Gilardi
    "Torrente Secco", 1965
    Polyurethane foam
    170 x 170 x 23 cm
    Courtesy Galleria Biasutti & Biasutti, Torino
     

  • Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
    "Clouds", 2008
    Polyethylene foam, textile
    Edited for Kvadrat A/S
    © Photo: Paul Tahon et R & E Bouroullec
     

  • Ilkka Halso
    "Restoration – Untitled no 7", 2000
    C-Print on aluminium
    125 x 171 cm
    © Ilkka Halso
     

  • Saâdane Afif
    "L’esclave", 2005
    Yucca and metal chain
    50 x 25 cm
    Courtesy GDM, Galerie de multiples
     

  • Edwin Zwakman
    "Backyards – Street II", 2004
    C-Print
    220 x 157 cm
    Courtesy Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam
     

  • Meriç Kara
    "Blockcrack", 2005
    Flower pot
    Molded cement
    18 x 20 x 20 cm
    © Photo: Kartal Arat
     

  • Michel Huelin
    "Grassbug 1", 2007
    Lambda print under plexiglas
    75 x 100 cm
    Courtesy Galerie Blancpain, Geneva
     

From June 24, 2009
to September 27, 2009

Nature in a Kit

For several years, the evidence has been there to see: nature is coming back in force in society's discussions as much as in the imagination of contemporary creators. What with the call for collective responsibility to safeguard it and the multiplication of urban substitutes, nature seems omnipresent, whereas we have never been so distanced from it. The central subject of very pragmatic challenges, its original inspirational power is effecting a transformation and confronting mankind with the question of its use. Contemporary creation has made itself into an eloquent interpreter of this and is delineating ...

Designers and artists take pleasure in clouding the issues with literal responses, allusive evocations, never before seen hybridisations and biting visual comments.
The exhibition Nature in a Kit re-composes in its fashion a landscape of our time, a constructed environment which brings together the works of around a hundred creators from all over the world.


  • Hubert Crevoisier, funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass and metallic part

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • Marie Garnier, funerary urns, 2007-2008, blown glass

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • Elisabeth Garouste, Bouquet noir (Black Bunch of Flowers), funerary urns, 2008-2009, blown de-polished glass

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • Alexis Georgacopoulos, vase and funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • Jean-Michel Othoniel, funerary urn, 2008-2009, blown glass

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • Pierre Charpin, funerary urns, 2007-2008, blown glass

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • François Bauchet, funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

  • Jean-Baptiste Sibertin-Blanc, funerary urn, 2007-2008, blown glass, glass sheets and corian marble

    Credit: © Glassworks
     

From May 6, 2009
to January 10, 2010

Post Mortem. Ten creators rethink the funerary urn

Death is omnipresent in the media and in our leisure distractions. Yet we avoid direct contact with those lifeless corpses which confront us with our own fragility. Our diversionary tactics vary: over-elaborate ritualisation or, on the contrary, an aseptic and depersonalised relationship.
The funerary urn, an object made to preserve the deceased ashes and dissimulating them in a neutral container, belongs to these tactics. Its aesthetics are usually solemn if not morbid. How to remediate this?

 

 

The ambition behind the presentation of Post mortem. Ten creators rethink the funerary urn to explore - via the prototypes conceived by the artists - the way in which creation approaches cremation. All the presented urns were produced by Matteo Gonet, a Swiss glass artist and designer.