The team at La Becque is delighted to invite you to join us on Saturday, May 25, 2024, on the shores of Lake Geneva in La Tour-de-Peilz, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our artists’ residency.

 

On this free day open to all, the public will have the opportunity to discover, for the first time in Switzerland, a sound performance by the Basel ensemble of ten Alponom musicians, who will interpret a piece for alphorn by American artist Stephen O’Malley, resident at La Becque in 2021.

 

On this free day, open to everyone and celebrating the international community that has grown up around La Becque, the public will have the opportunity to discover, for the first time in Switzerland, a sound performance by the Basel-based ensemble of ten Alponom musicians, who will perform at dawn (05:30) and dusk (21:00) the piece You Origin (for alphorns) by American artist Stephen O’Malley, resident at La Becque in 2021.

 

Also in the line-up: a performance by French sculptor Cécile Bouffard and Anglo-American dancer Ruth Childs (2021 residents), a performance by Kosovar artist Astrit Ismaili (2024 resident), a sound performance by Chilean artist Nicole L’Huillier (2023 La Becque resident) and Swiss-Martinican artist Nathalie Rebholz, a live concert by Korean cellist, composer and improviser Okkyung Lee (2023 resident) and a DJset by Time is Away, made up of British artist Jack Rollo and Irish historian Elaine Tierney, also 2024 residents.

 

Free admission all day. The public is invited to leave the residence after Alponom & Stephen O’Malley’s first performance at dawn, until the official opening at 2pm.

 

Bar and food on site.

La Becque, photo Matthieu Croizier for Art Basel

To celebrate the Fête de la musique, we’re delighted to welcome electronic music duo Matmos and artist Yara Asmar, resident at La Becque as part of a partnership with Pro Helvetia.

 

Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Matmos is known for its use of unusual samples. Since the 1990s, the duo, consisting of M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, has been using all sorts of objects, sources, and sound materials, from the sound of pages of the Bible turning over to that of a police riot shield, to create conceptual and playful electronic productions that straddle the line between musique concrète, electroacoustics and dance music.

After using nothing but sounds generated by a washing machine on Ultimate Care II in 2016, recording Plastic Anniversary in a plastic recycling plant in Montana (in 2019) or collaborating with 99 musicians on The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form (2020), the American duo have released their latest opus Return to Archive (2023), in which they seize and transform the vast archives of the Folkways Records label, which features recordings from all over the world: from folk and protest music to indigenous music and jazz, as well as the sounds of dolphins, beetles and telephones.

 

Yara Asmar is a Lebanese musician, video artist, and puppeteer who lives and works in Beirut. In her practice, she recomposes and diverts childish symbols to create universes that are both dark and poetic – the antithesis of the naïve positivism that encompasses the world of early childhood. Since 2019, she has been creating puppets, which often take the form of human faces, to incorporate into short films that explore the distressing and imprisoning impact of time, anxiety, and death.

Asmar has recently begun to perform live, generating highly sensitive experimental compositions through the use of toys, such as a deconstructed children’s piano, a vintage accordion or a metallophone.

 

Free admission and bar on site.

Concert Matmos & Jeff Carey, La Becque, 2023, photo Julien Gremaud

Initiated in 2019, Modern Nature aims to bring together works, discussions and performances as echoes of Derek Jarman’s artistic work. This project, imagined as a tribute to the artist, his garden at Prospect Garden and his activism, guides the reflections that accompany the conception of this event.

 

After four editions dedicated to the themes of “Camp”, “Queer Nature”, the AIDS crisis and the garden as sanctuary, La Becque proposes a fifth iteration of Modern Nature, which this time focuses on thinking corporality through water(1), through a panorama of varied and original artistic practices.

 

The fifth edition of Modern Nature will feature workshops, conversations, installations, performances and screenings by Bruta, Salomé Chatriot, Tony Colombe. K, Fronte Violeta, Gérald Arev Kurdian, Lazare Lazarus, Clovis Maillet, Robert Mills, Sandar Tun Tun and Lena Maria Thüring.

 

Free admission, bar and food on site.

(1) Neimanis, Astrida. Hydrofeminism: Or, on Becoming a Body of Water, 2012.
Photo: Marc Eicher, In Between, Modern Nature, La Becque, 2023, photo Julien Gremaud

Join us on Thursday, July 18 from 18:00 to 22:00 for the summer session of our traditional Open Studios. During this evening, the residents will exceptionally open the doors of their studios and apartments for presentations of their current projects.

 

Come and discover the work of Yara Asmar, Hugo Hectus, Astrit Ismaili, Sonya Isupova, Rizomagic, Marina Rosenfeld, Time is Away and Luana Vitra, and enjoy installations and performances created especially for this event.

 

A unique opportunity to meet these artists and share a moment over a drink and some food. Free admission.

La Becque, 2023, photo Matthieu Croizier for Art Basel