8th ArtPosition, ArtPosition10 in Salavaux, Switzerland, 13-15 Aug 2010

Hiya
Have just been informed that a great little Swiss open-air art show will be held at the small town of Salavaux on Lake Morat/Murtensee from 13th to 15th August, 2010. If past experience is anything to go by, this is well worth a detour from almost wherever you may be
I'm really busy with paid work but here is the press release in German and French. English may follow later. Until then, cheerioh!

Inside the hangar at ArtPosition7, this blogger's floor impression, Aug 2007, © MP-J

Die ArtPosition10 findet in Salavaux statt

(texte en français suit en bas)

Die 8. ArtPosition findet vom 13.-15. August 2010 in Salavaux statt. Die ersten drei Kunstausstellungen „ArtPosition“ fanden in drei verschiedenen Industriehallen in Murten und die nächsten vier auf dem Militärflugplatz in Payerne statt.

Vom Militärjet zum Motorboot

Von 2006-2009 stellten jeweils über 100 Künstlerlnnen aus der ganzen Schweiz und dem Ausland in den Militärflugzeughallen U70 in Payerne aus. Dieses Jahr werden um die 100 KünstlerInnen in den Motorboothallen der Nautic Technic in Salavaux ausstellen. In Salavaux werden renommierte Kunstschaffende jungen, unbekannten Talenten eine ideale Plattform bieten, um sich einem breiten Publikum präsentieren zu können. Die ArtPosition09 wurde von über 2500 kunstinteressierten BesucherInnen aus der ganzen Schweiz besucht.

ArtPosition10
13. August, 17h-20h: Vernissage
14. August, 11h-16h: Ausstellung
15. August, 11h-16h: Finissage (Valiant Award um 15h)

Anmeldung: Ab sofort können sich interessierte Kunstschaffende via www.artposition.ch für die ArtPosition10 bewerben.

ArtPosition10 à Salavaux

Salavaux accueillera la 8e édition d’ArtPosition du 13 au 15 août 2010. Les trois premières éditions de l’exposition d’art „ArtPosition“ avaient été organisées dans diverses halles industrielles à Morat et les quatre suivantes sur l’aire de l’aérodrome militaire de Payerne.

Du jet militaire au bateau à moteur

Entre 2006 et 2009, les expositions avaient réuni à chaque fois une centaine d’artistes de Suisse et de l’étranger dans les halles U70 de l’aviation militaire à Payerne. Cette année, près de 100 artistes exposeront leurs oeuvres dans les halles des bateaux à moteur de Nautic Technic à Salavaux. À Salavaux, des artistes de renom entoureront de jeunes talents encore inconnus et leur offriront une plateforme idéale pour se faire connaître du grand public. En 2009, ArtPosition avait attiré plus de 2500 amateurs d’art de toute la Suisse.

ArtPosition10
13 août, 17h-20h: Vernissage
14 août, 11h-16h: Exposition
15 août, 11h-16h: Finissage (remise du prix Valiant Award à 15h)

Inscription: Les artistes intéressé-e-s peuvent postuler à ArtPosition10 et s’inscrire en ligne sur le site www.artposition.ch.

Remembering a sunny summer Sunday - ArtPosition'07 in Payerne

Hello again!

It's way past the time to go home and have supper, but I've so long wanted to post some photographic impressions of what is quite rapidly becoming a huge public success in the Swiss art scene, so here goes -- this is going to be another blogón, a big post. Thank you for bearing with me.

ArtPosition is a yearly art exhibition for regional (and wannabee) artists. It is held each August inside and outside a concrete hangar on the military airfield at Payerne, Switzerland. I was there for the first time this year and was struck by the unusual setting -- what a great way to use a military structure. Way to go!

Here are some impressions of the actual hangar, inside and out, to get us into the mood, including art works by artists whose names I've not taken the trouble to find out (With my apologies! if you're the artist, please get in touch through the comment platform and I'll make sure you're given due credit.)
Not to worry, that's not a bomb but a fuel tank.

*****

Some of the pieces that really impressed me:
Ceramic sculptures by Judith Stucki (above and below).Michel Riedo, "Emblème sauvage" (above)
Above and below: Marie-Chantal Collaud Fragnière, "Banc de sable" 2007 -- this is what an imaginative spirit can make of a scrunched-up, rusty heap of venetian blinds.
Again Marie-Chantal Collaud Fragnière, "Laissez le moi encore un peu mon amoureux, un jour, deux jours, 8 jours… (E. Piaf)" 2007:
It was one of the more popular pieces in the show, not least for its evocative title.
Feo Eggimann, "Yellow Window", juxtaposed with this almost perfect cube of black granite ("Sirius", also by Feo Eggimann):
The lighter specks only show up in the photograph; with the naked eye you can scarcely see them in this piece."Sirius" seems to be blended into or float on its white pedestal.
Another contrast: "Installation", by Christina Wendt:
For those who have problems reading the caption nearly obliterated by my flash: "The best things in life are still made by hand." ;)
Cheeky, isn't she! :)

Claude Büchler (Sweden/Switzerland), Board prints, Grödinger technique (above) -- sorry for the poor quality, but I'm hoping this will give an impression of the ephemeral quality of these beautiful prints. Quite lovely. ("velvet moon", "night sky", "greyhorizon IV")
Above: a magnificent pencil drawing by Li Trieb (untitled, but I'd like to call it a seascape).
Above: Lilly Keller (untitled) -- she's one of the grandes dames des beaux arts of Bern. Love this piece!

****

Outside sculptures:
Urs Ernst, "Parlatina" (?) (above)
Jean-Luc Metthez, "Janus" (above and below)
"Point de vue" by Jean-Luc Metthez (?) -- one of the more impressive sculptures that day.
*****
Finally, a few "gros plan" photos:Above: Walter Hofer, "Wandzeitung", "Leser"
Thank you. Come back soon, and tell me, do you agree with Anatole France, who said this: "In art, as in love, instinct is enough."

Môtiers, take two -- soon over, sadly!

Remember the post about the open-air art exhibition at Môtiers, in the Jura above Neuchâtel? Well, I was hoping to go back for a second look, but it's been so busy here that there's barely time to create the long-promised second post about that magical show.
Above, a reminder of "Bleu du ciel" (Sky Blue) by Katja Schenker after Relax' UNIMOTIERS.
... from which a rain-bow coloured little road leads to a curious object in the meadow. (I gather the rainbow is from a previous show):Can you guess what it is? Don't peek below just yet, have a think... :)
Yes, a huge bed, with an "eiderdown" in the shape of a gently rounded, snowy landscape. Peculiar, touching. (Tina Z'Rotz et Markus Schwander: In den Hügeln [In the Hills]).
This image just to show the dimensions of this piece. The person on the left is a girl, maybe fifteen years old.
A little further downhill, the patient, art-loving farmers painstakingly keep a field cropped, manoeuvring their tractors ...
... around a billboard depicting three cows grazing and nibbling at the Swiss organic food producers' logo of a budding blade of grass (or some other bud).
In the nearby woods one comes across more curious objects, like this beautiful door that reflects the trees and the sky...... without actually leading anywhere, or this quirky piece:Kerim Seiler's Fusionobjekt is a set of picnic benches "woven" into a tree.
The shadows weave another pattern...

Elsewhere, near a bridge that leads into steeper woodland, cars drive, people and dogs walk across a gash in the concrete that only at very close range reveals human shapes – finger-length aluminum moulds crammed together and held in by wire mesh. (Marcus Egli: Passage clandestin)
The sinister allusions are brought home with sickening force in Martin Disler's nine bronzes from his series Häutung und Tanz, 1990-91 (Moult and Dance). The name of this piece sounds so much more positive that his figures, which reminded me of images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
They become half-way bearable by the memory of the "eternal" peace at the nearby waterfall: And because I'm not really such a pessimist, I turn to more cheerful things, like this door in the middle of the village, which, presumably, does lead somewhere.
(Sylvie Fleury: Mushroom, with Relax' UNIMOTIERS in the background.)
The neat thing about this kind of show is that it hones one's senses so that one begins to see art even where there is none, or only accidentally so.I wish I could have asked someone about the purpose of this wheel -- I'm sure it's a very ingenious piece of agricultural engineering.