Photo credit: Lisa Cirieco
Château de Vullierens architecture, magnificent gardens and sculpture park form one of Switzerland’s most remarkable heritage sites with an incomparable 180° degree view of the Alps, Mont Blanc and Lake Geneva. Rising from the foundations of a C13th fortress, Château de Vullierens is considered the purest example of early C18 architecture in the country. The 100-acre estate has remained in the same family for 700 years. It is visited by hundreds of local and international garden enthusiasts and art lovers.
The flowering season starts with tulips, followed by rhododendrons, bluebells, peonies, irises, roses, day lilies, herbaceous borders, hydrangeas, and concludes with the autumn plant collection.
The iris collection - started in 1955 - is considered one of the most modern in Europe. It features recent award winning American hybrids, including several rare re-flowering varieties. An incomparable 4-acre coloured mosaic is created by 400,000 flowers at the height of the season. Themed gardens provide additional delight, offering a varied selection of designs and vistas. The famous ‘large trees collection’ includes Sequoia, Oaks and possibly the oldest Tulip tree in Switzerland.
The sculpture park features over 80 large contemporary works by 25 Swiss and international artists - Davide Rivalta, Beverly Pepper, Alan Jones, Gillian White, Laura Ford, Dorothy Cross, Christian Lapie, Etienne Krahenbuhl, Manuel Torres, Pol Quadrens, Manuel Carbonnel, Mireille Fulpius, Carles Valverde, Herbert Mehler, Werner Pokorny, among others.
Vullierens' 6-acre vineyard features Chasselas, Pinot Noir, Gamay, Gamaret, Garanoir, and Galotta.
We caught up with Beverley Webster, Vice-Chair at Geneva's The Library in English. She told us,"I have been working at the Library for around 20 years! I first joined as a member in 1989, then as my daughter grew up and I had more time, I started working as a desk volunteer. From there I progressed to the Library Committee and am currently its Vice-Chair." The Library in English is kindly offering one lucky knowitall reader a full family membership for one year (a Fr. 175.- value). Read below to find out how to enter our competition.
The Library was started in the early 1930s by a group of volunteers for the parishioners of the American Church. It has changed in many ways but it is still run almost entirely by volunteers and its members now come from more than 50 countries around the world, joined together by their desire to read in English. From its small beginning we now have over 10,000 books on the shelves, but the Library still maintains its original charm. The Library now buy books throughout the year and has a wide collection of adult best sellers, fiction, non-fiction and a wonderful children's section starting with board books and ending with young adult books via easy readers, picture books, fairy tales, and comic books. The Library is a non-profit making organization.
What is the biggest obstacle The Library in English has had to overcome?
Like most other institutions we have of course suffered through the Covid outbreak. The Library was forced to close a few times, then when we did open it was with reduced help and with reduced opening hours. But probably the worst was not being able to hold our twice yearly Book Sales. These provide the Library with more than half its income, and although we did receive aid from the Etat de Geneve, it was, and still is, a very worrying time. Thankfully our members realised we were struggling and helped with their generous donations.
The Library in English future plans
Our main plan is to update our computer system with a view to putting our catalogue on line to give members wider and easier access to our services. We also hope to re-start our children's story time readings and we have just begun to open on Wednesday mornings to accommodate more children on their day off school.
If you haven't yet visited the fantastic park at Signal de Bougy, then wait no longer. In fact, they are even putting up a great Family Package prize for a competition. Read on to find out how to enter.
Signal de Bougy was inaugurated in 1971 and is now part of the Pour-cent culturel Migros, the social commitment branch of the Migros Group. For over 50 years, activities in the park have multiplied, but the approach of the visitors has not changed. Days spent in the park are memorable. This timeless site, in the broadest sense of the term, represents several generations who are now bringing their children to enjoy a day out.
We caught up with Sylvie Hofstetter, who is in charge of marketing and communications, to find out what this new season brings.
What new features are being proposed for the 2022 season?
- Jeu d'Énigmes: this new puzzle game is paired with an App and translated into English. The next one can be loaded on 9 April 2022. All you need is a smartphone or tablet with the Enigmatix application installed via the QR code from the website. A virtual companion will accompany you throughout the game and will give you clues when you need them, so don't worry, you will always be able to find your way. The game is free and available in French or English!
- New workshops have been organized, in particular Urban'Mix.
- Creative workshops.
- Yoga and zumba classes for children.
- A surprise in the Kid'z land is programmed for July but I can't say more... surprise, surprise!
- We are enthusiastic about the return of 4 shows in July and August that can be reserved online for CHF 10.-/seat.
- The Halloween mini disco on 6 November 2022 is a great deal for CHF 10.-/entrance and includes a drink.
Amar Kanwar (New Delhi, 1964)
On Sunday, 3 April 2022 at 14h, a one-hour guided tour with an English-speaking guide will be organized at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne. The price of this visit is CHF 20.- per person. It’s actually the entrance fee to the temporary exhibition, the guided tour is free of charge. The entrance is free of charge with a museum pass, Raiffeisen card, Swiss travel pass.
More information on the guided tour and booking: www.mcba.ch/agenda/guided-tour-resister-encore-in-english/
Résister, encore
The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts is currently hosting an exhibit entitled: Résister, encore. This collective show portrays various forms of resistance that artists have developed when faced with the great challenges of our age – those forms amount to survival strategies. As we are currently aware of the tensions around the world, especially those happening in Ukraine, we are reminded how important it is to "not forget". These artists, also known as Resistant Artists, are so important for the memories of wartime to not be forgotten.
This group show, the last to be curated by Bernard Fibicher before he steps down as director in June, illustrates the forms of resistance (withdrawal, silence, resilience, outcry, indignation, protestation, action, refection, satire) that artists have developed when faced with the great challenges of our age. Those forms amount to survival strategies.
Bernard Fibicher explains, "Art, culture in general has always been a force of resistance in building an alternative world. To think, to find a way to act differently means not being satisfied with what already exists. All of the forms of resistance we’ve seen in the world over the past 10 years (the Yellow Vests, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, the Umbrella Revolution…) and the growing number of people who are rebelling through speech and action
against all kinds of “systems” have reinforced in my mind the idea that we need to highlight art’s exemplary role as the training ground for devising and lending concrete form to ways of resisting."
One of the best artists from Switzerland has to be Markus Raetz (Bern Switzerland 1941-2020). Language is one of three parameters in the art in his repertoir. In Geneva, the sculpture OUI NON amazes passers by if they dare to look up at the Place du Rhône! Read our article from 2020 at this link. Markus Raetz works on the real and unreal of the negative/positive and the perception and the deformation on shapes in a mirror or facing each other. He invites the viewer to interact, because many works by the artist reveal themselves only by the movement of the viewer in front of the sculpture.
As the Fondation Jan Michalski in Vaud is hosting a wonderful exhibition around Markus Raetz through 10 July this year, this is the time to visit this wonderful museum/library/architecture. A pair of entrance tickets is up for grabs in our competition (below).
Markus Raetz's works with sizing up words and letters, pushing them further, exploring their interconnections within several languages, and embodying them in eloquent visual forms – eloquent, too, in the etymological sense of “speaking out.” In this brilliant artist’s output, language is a singular source of inspiration as well as matter for an inventiveness that is bound up with both its translation into images and Raetz’s craftsmanship, the other two elements are at the core of his body of work.
Raetz’s reflection on words and language generally is both playful and systematic, deep and done with a twinkle in the artist’s eye, personal and implying the participation of others. As the viewer looks on, one and the same stationary object embodies a no and a yes; seen from the left and the right (see poster below), a little brass object collectively exclaims AHA; the ich (I) at the head of a body floating in space is transformed into a wir (we) at the other end. This message counts in the artist’s thinking. He emphasizes exchange and sharing. Time to fire up our imagination! “One’s own movement is important. I give the viewer responsibility – or free play, room to manoeuver. I want to give them certainty, like a fine instrument,” the artist once declared.
