Modern Nature
An Homage to Derek Jarman (Part 6)
18.07.2025
With Aho Ssan & ASIA, Damsel Elysium, Erell Le Pape & Loréleï Nelle, Nkisi & Tiran Willemse, Time is Away, and Will Ballantyne-Reid.
Launched in 2019, Modern Nature is a public program paying tribute to English filmmaker, writer, activist, and gardener Derek Jarman. Inspired by his life and his iconic Prospect Cottage garden in Dungeness, the event explores intersections between ecology, transmission, experimental artistic practices, and queer thought. Each year, Swiss and international artists are invited to create performances, installations, screenings, and sound interventions designed for La Becque’s gardens on the shores of Lake Geneva.
The 2025 edition drew inspiration from Jarman’s only known work of short fiction, Through the Billboard Promised Land Without Ever Stopping—a poetic, surreal road story that blurs memory, prophecy, and drift. Curated by Vanessa Cimorelli, the 2025 program featured works that felt like transmissions from liminal zones: ghost frequencies, sonic mirages, flickering signals.
Download the curatorial texts by Vanessa Cimorelli
The 6th edition of Modern Nature was supported by Loterie Romande, Fondation Coromandel and Ville de La Tour-de-Peilz.
Modern Nature, La Becque, 2025, photo Margot Sparkes (La Becque) and Aurélien Haslebacher (Temple)