Dans le Labyrinthe: Un voyage Liminal

BALDWIN GUGGISBERG

at the Musee du Verre Romont

Jun 4, 2023 – Jan 21, 2024

The exhibition in Romont, which opened in June, is the culmination of a series of four major exhibitions over the preceding four years on themes involving culture, politics and history which the artists have assiduously pursued. None of the works have been seen before in Switzerland.

If you go: VitroMusée108b Rue du ChâteauRomont, FR, 1680Switzerland (map)

“In preparing this exhibition we wanted to share the labyrinthine quality of our own work, with its diverse and varying themes, as well as to express the deeper connections we have made, especially over the last six or seven years, since we moved to Wales. In this time there have been four major exhibitions, all site specific, in St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, Canterbury Cathedral, in Kent, England, Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark, and the Musée du Verre in Conches, France. They have all addressed subjects both challenging and intimate, contemporary and ancient, from the twentieth century, back through humanity's long trajectory across history, from the palaeolithicpaleolithic to the age of AI, together with our abiding links to the Cosmos.

“Each of these previous exhibitions is represented here in Romont, with iconic installations from those shows. Represented as well are many examples of our ongoing smaller works over the last years. Many of these have been made expressly for Romont, and all are recent. All of the work is being shown in Switzerland for the first time. For those viewers who knew us "way back when" in the last century, the works will give a clear sense of the long and liminal journey we have travelled.”

Baldwin & Guggisberg

“The five visible planets, plus the sun and the moon, gave their name to the seven days of the week. The first quarter of a lunar month counts seven days and the musical range Western has seven distinct notes. In many cultures, stories folklore abounds about the seventh child – in some stories, the child was supposed have healing powers, in other magical powers, both good and bad. In ancient Egypt there were seven paths to heaven and seven heavenly cows. In the Indian Vedas, the god of fire, Agni, seven wives and can produce seven flames. Without forgetting the seven dwarves and the seven sins capital!” Baldwin & Guggisberg

In her contribution “Venice, Venini and back”, Marzia Scalon, curator head of the Centro Studi del Vetro of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, discusses the importance of the island of Murano and its glass production rich in tradition, such as place of attraction for Baldwin & Guggisberg. Scalon emphasizes that the work of the two artists is marked by their collaboration with the renowned Venetian glass master Lino Tagliapietra and Venini’s workshop, as well as by the discovery of techniques Venetian cold work, which they reinvent in their artistic production by combining with the Swedish system of blown glass, known as “overlay technique”. This alliance of Scandinavian and Italian techniques is the characteristic of the work of the two artists and a fundamental element in the development of their work.

~excerpted from catalog.

Images are used with permission of the artists, and thanks to the photographers, Alex Ramsay and Christof Lehmann.