La Becque is pleased to host the project Binominale*, a new kind of artistic event curated by the Swiss collective Fragmentin !

 

Taking its cue from the French word “binôme”, which stands for a “complementary pair”, Binominal* aims to bring together artists from different countries to share guidance on how to recreate or re-perform each other’s artworks from afar. Their collaborations and artistic processes will be documented in novel ways and uploaded to the Binominale* website, which will serve as a modern digital archive.

 

The resulting artworks will then be exhibited simultaneously – on site and online – by two partner institutions in the artists’ home countries. This contemporary interpretation of 1960s conceptual art encourages co-creation and local sourcing of materials and production. By eliminating transportation, the ecological impact is to be minimised and the saved costs redistributed into the creative process.

 

The first iteration will take place simultaneously in La Becque, la Tour de Peilz (CH) and in San Francisco (US) from October 6-17, 2021 with the support from swissnex San Francisco. It will link the Swiss artist Bruno Aeberli with the American artist Rhonda Holberton, as well as the French designer based in Chexbres Bertille Laguet and the American artist Sherwin Rio.

 

Opening on October 6, more info soon!

The Garden can be visited on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 2 to 6 pm. Please send us an email to let us know you are coming!

 

Conceived jointly by curator Elise Lammer and La Becque, Modern Nature: An Homage to Derek Jarman is a project which comprises the development of a garden and an artistic programme inspired by the life and work of Derek Jarman (1942-1994). Created especially for Modern Nature, the garden located on the lakeside grounds of La Becque is a tribute to the one Derek Jarman developed around his Dungeness cottage in the later years of his life. and a reinterpretation of the principles that guided him throughout his gardening process.

Since 2019, this place within a place at La Becque has served as a platform for interventions by Swiss and international contemporary artists – both close collaborators of Jarman and artists whose practice strongly resonates with his – whose work addresses the global question of identity, notably through avant-garde practices exploring sexuality and gender. Conceived as an open-ended process of layering, the synergies both documented and undocumented taking place between the artists’ contributions and the garden flora gradually grants the garden its autonomy, eventually embodying what a living archive could be.

In resonance with the current health crisis and its impact on artistic production, this third part of Modern Nature was dedicated to the AIDS crisis, whose Swiss history and impact on culture still seems relatively unknown. Derek Jarman, who died in London in 1994 after a long illness related to HIV, left his mark on a whole generation for his fight against the stigmatisation and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS. Through his prism, and that of the garden he inspired (among others through the material and narrative concept of soil), Modern Nature proposes to re-examine the notions of community and of sanitary isolation, whether voluntary or forced, and the cultural scenes that emerge from or are affected by them.

 

Supported by the city of La Tour-de-Peilz, Fondation Leenaards, Fondation Philanthropique Famille Sandoz, Migros Pour-Cent Culturel and Fondation Nestlé pour l'Art