Living in times of great upheaval.

Cataclysms follow one another and we perceive their repercussions acutely depending on where we observe them. Whether these disasters are political, human, ecological or cultural is of little importance. They are happening today, before our very eyes.

From 24 to 27 September 2020, we have decided to set off on a journey to explore Switzerland in search of its own earthquakes.

TREMBLEMENT

Surely the scale, reasons, and magnitude of what is happening today is beyond us, but it now feeds our practice. It transforms us as it should transform our society. Going to meet these tremors allows us to develop a professional approach adapted to these new times, in line with the ephemeral, elusive and uncertain nature of the period we are going through. For us, it is a question of vibrating with the world in which we live, finding ourselves totally in tune with it to reveal its micro-oscillations, its weak signals.

Faced with the cancellation of the Swiss Art and Architecture Prizes in which we were invited to participate this year, we have joined forces to propose TREMBLEMENT, a performative and exploratory work on the roads of Switzerland. From 24 to 27 September, we will be crisscrossing the country to explore six territories, all linked by the question of risk and danger, whether technical or natural.

From landslides to the melting of glaciers, from geothermal boreholes to motorway areas, the aim is to test the breath of these places, to take their raw materials and to confront the power of the forces operating there. The exercise is sometimes methodical, technical, sometimes more performative and poetic. By induction, TREMBLEMENT responds to the desire to think about a new cartography, both physical and sensitive, of the world today, of the period we are going through and the great upheavals we are witnessing.

Halfway between exploration and performance, this first phase of TREMBLEMENT is also an opportunity to question the conditions of our practices, whether in art or architecture. Accompanied by specialists, the stages will be filmed and documented, gradually building up a data, film and sound bank that will be accessible online (www.tremblement.ch) and on social networks, like a living archive.

SÉVERIN GUELPA (ARTIST), VALENTIN KUNIK AND GUILLAUME DE MORSIER (ARCHITECTS)