Rencontrons-nous à la gare is part of the inaugural theme Train Zug Treno Tren put forward by the three museums of Plateforme 10.
Let’s meet at the station
Focusing on the idea of meeting and the roman de gare (the pulp novel but literally in French the “train station novel”), mudac places the individual at the center of its show. As the classic locus of reunions, departures, and chance encounters, the station and the train are places in which life plays out, spaces that are especially favorable to the imagination. This union of reality and fiction lies at the heart of the story told by the exhibition Rencontrons-nous à la gare (Let’s Meet at the Station), which is punctuated with objects that spring from the field of design as well as contemporary artworks. Extending and rounding out this wonderful range of items are moving images from the worlds of advertising and music videos. Archival footage from the Swiss federal railway network can be seen alongside artworks by Christian Boltanski, Salvador Dali, Sophie Calle, Marina Abramovic, and Studio Job.
In order to enhance the objects with a fictional component, the exhibition comes with a contemporary airport novel, Terre-des-Fins, published by Editions Zoé, which was written by three experienced authors: Bruno Pellegrino, Aude Seigne and Daniel Vuataz. The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to become, during their visit, the character of the novel they most identify with.
The scenography is the work of the Interior Architecture Department of HEAD – Genève, Geneva University of Art and Design -, and turns mudac’s new exhibition halls into a film set welcoming visitors to a hypothetical mining town reminiscent of the one in the novel and inviting them to become the heroes and heroines of their own scenario.
A joint exhibition
Rencontrons-nous à la gare is the first mudac exhibition in its new building. This exhibition, which is presented from June 18 to September 26, 2022, is part of the common theme of the three museums of Plateforme 10: Train Zug Treno Tren.
The three exhibitions, conceived by each of the museums of Plateforme 10, enrich the metaphor of this railway history by paying homage to the former vocation of the site in the immediate vicinity of Lausanne station, a stopover for the mythical Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express.
Favoring the crossing of views, the three exhibitions free themselves from any literal or strictly chronological approach. Transdisciplinary, they prefer instead to cross their subject from one side to the other, symbolizing in a subtle mixture of identity strength and versatility the genesis of this unique platform that is the arts district of Lausanne.
“The imagery of trains” at MCBA
With more than 60 masterpieces from Giorgio de Chirico to Edward Hopper and from Paul Delvaux to Leonor Fini, The Imagery of Trains takes us on an epic railway journey.
“Crossing Lines” at Photo Elysée
Crossing Lines, explores new approaches to railway history for over more than a century and a half, from the earliest train experiences in the 19th century to its uses today.
Behind the scenes of the exhibition
Rencontrons-nous à la gare, an exhibition created with 20 tons of bricks! In episode 3 of the web-series “Le mudac prend ses quartiers”, Marco Costantini and Rafaël Santianez take you behind the scenes of the exhibition.
Curators | Marco Costantini Deputy director Rafaël Santianez Research associate |
Staging | HEAD – Genève, Architecture d’intérieur Javier F. Contreras Head of the department Valentina de Luigi Assistant of the department Youri Kravtchenko Project Manager Camille Bagnoud et Manon Portera Assistants Shana Bennett et Gaïane Legendre BA students |