Activity reports

The attractive 20/20 graphic duplicate pointed to an exceptional, rich, innovative and stimulating year and, for mudac, a wonderful celebration of 20 years spent in the beautiful Gaudard house on Place de la Cathédrale. Stimulating and rich, it certainly was, but in very contrasting ways.

It has been a surprising year indeed, a year of successive rebounds and a decisive year for mudac and its entire team, which in 2021 will embark on the formidable project of moving to the railway station, in Lausanne’s exceptional future arts district, Plateforme 10.

In 2019, mudac continued to explore and expand the rich spectrum of practices known as design. In Nez à nez, we introduced the public to the work of 13 contemporary perfumers. HORS PISTES took us on a journey from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Arctic in a visual dialogue between designers and craftspeople in different countries. We also gave carte blanche to the internationally renowned design studio BIG-GAME from Lausanne, and we fondly remember the late Pierre Keller, former director of ECAL, who first introduced us to the studio’s members. Last but not least, we ended the year in grand ceremony with Sneaker Collab, an exhibition dedicated to those potent symbols of today’s globalised design world.

Looking back on the past year’s activities as we write this letter is always exciting, because it makes us realise just how full our programme is here at the mudac. In 2018 we organised, in no particular order: three temporary exhibitions, five shows from our permanent collections, Museum Night events, a study day, guided tours, workshops for children and adults, lectures, an inventory of our collection and more. Suffice it to say our day-to-day work here at the museum has been intense!

Objects that combine the everyday and the exceptional, jewellery as trompe-l’œil, glass art that tells a story, visual art, video: the five temporary exhibitions held at the mudac in 2017–and our joint ventures and side projects–were a perfect reflection of how elastic the concept of design can be.

May these pages help you to remember or discover the events which enlivened the mudac in 2016: from the archaic future to the Freitag brothers, by way of bookless readings, glass of every hue, pinball machine designs, our questions about safety and surveillance, Hergé’s original illustrations and rooms filled with Constance Guisset’s furniture.