Back

«Modern Nature Part II» at La Becque

Groupshow (an hommage to Derek Jarman), September 25 until December 1, 2020

Artists

Adrien Chevalley, Alessandra Novaga, Anne-Laure Franchette, Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Félicia Atkinson, Florence Peake, Jessy Razafimandimby, Jose Cáceres Mardones, Julie Monot, L’Atelier du Paysage, Marie Griesmar, Prem Sahib, Rosario Talevi, Rose & Mathilde, Time Is Away, Victor Delétraz

Institution

La Becque

Location

La Tour-de-Peilz

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

labecque.ch

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Anne-Laure Franchette, Grand Travaux Urbains, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Manon Briod / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Conceived jointly by Basel-based curator Elise Lammer and La Becque, Modern Nature: An Homage to Derek Jarman is a three-year project which comprises the development of a garden and an artistic programme inspired by the life and work of British filmmaker, activist, artist and activist Derek Jarman (1942-1994). Created especially for Modern Nature, the garden located on the lakeside grounds of La Becque is a tribute to the garden Jarman developed around his seaside cottage in Dungeness, on the southern coast of Kent during the eight years preceding his death from AIDS-related illness. Far from a perfect copy, La Becque’s Jarman-inspired garden is actually a reinterpretation of the principles that guided him throughout his gardening process, i.e. working with local and native species, creating scenography based on found elements, devising efficient biodynamic arrangements and avoiding walls or fences.

At La Becque the garden acts as a platform for artistic projects by Swiss and international contemporary artists working across the mediums of video, sculpture, performance and music. In late summer 2019 the first selection of living artists were put in dialogue with what was still a sparse garden and a rather minimal research archive. Ranging from people who had worked closely together with Derek Jarman to younger artists whose practice strongly resonated with themes dear to him, the cohort’s connections to Jarman were somewhat intuitive and endorsed the capacity of his legacy to transcend generations and geographies. As a result, this first series of works newly designed or adapted “for” this Swiss version of Prospect Cottage emerged under the overarching theme of “camp”. Planned as an open-ended process of layering that could evolve over several years, the documented and undocumented synergies taking place between the artists’ contributions and the garden flora is gradually granting the garden its autonomy, eventually embodying what a living archive could be.

Modern Nature Part II

The second chapter of Modern Nature focuses on the notion of “queering nature”, unveiling newly-produced sculptures displayed in the garden, as well as readings, film screenings, and various artistic and musical performances.

Artists

Félicia Atkinson, Adrien Chevalley, Victor Delétraz, Anne-Laure Franchette, Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Marie Griesmar, L’Atelier du Paysage, Jose Cáceres Mardones, Julie Monot, Alessandra Novaga, Florence Peake, Jessy Razafimandimby, Rose & Mathilde, Prem Sahib, Rosario Talevi and Time Is Away

Félicia Atkinson

Félicia Atkinson (born in Paris, lives and works nomadically) is a musician, visual artist and writer born in Paris. Together with Bartolomé Sanson she runs Shelter Press, an independent publishing house, record label and research platform. Her work is an open reflection on the process of listening, on the kind of spaces and forms it implicates. Her music is based on spoken words, electronic sounds, field recordings and piano, and her artistic works include sound, text, sculpture and painting.

Adrien Chevalley

For his project at La Becque Adrien Chevalley (born in Vevey where he lives and works) focused on how biographical aspects of Jarman’s life transferred to his artistic work. Intrigued by what he understands as a cathartic mode of expression, Chevalley similarly took a traumatic life event as a starting point for his contribution to the garden.

Victor Delétraz

The artistic work of Victor Delétraz (born in Geneva where he lives and works) is mainly based on performance, writing and sculpture. Fascinated by the absurd, he offers a new gaze on trivial elements and events in his surroundings, and transform them by means of narrative shifts.

Anne-Laure Franchette

Anne-Laure Franchette (born in Le Plessis-Bouchard, lives and works in Zurich) is a French artist with a background in Human Sciences. Her work deals with urban nature and the circulation of plants in relation to industrial materials.

Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė

In their work Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė (born respectively in Lublin, Poland and Kaunas, Lithuania, live and work in Basel) explore artistic production through collaboration and search for aberrant media that lend themselves to creating speculative environments.

Marie Griesmar

Marie Griesmar (born in Morges, lives and works in Zurich) often evokes the dialectic between visible and invisible as well as the phenomenology of perception through installations, sculpture, paintings and publications.

L’Atelier du Paysage

Landscape architect and French-Swiss binational Jean-Yves Le Baron (lives and works in Lausanne) has been the co-director of L’Atelier du Paysage since the creation of the Lausanne-based office in 1992.

Jose Cáceres Mardones

Historian and curator Jose Cáceres Mardones (born in Curicó, lives and works in Zurich) holds a PhD in History from the University of Zurich where he is a lecturer and researcher in the History Department.

Julie Monot

Spanning various mediums, such as performance, video, photography and installation, the work of Julie Monot (born in Lausanne where she lives and works) focuses on the limits of corporeal externality and its modes of representation, the representation of gender, and identity in general.

Alessandra Novaga

Guitarist Alessandra Novaga (born in Latina, lives and work in Milan) was classically trained at the Musikhochschule MusiK-Akademie in Basel.

Florence Peake

The performance practice of Florence Peake (born in London where she lives and works) uses drawing, painting and sculpture combined with found and fabricated objects placed in relation to the moving body.

Jessy Razafimandimby

The work of Jessy Razafimandimby (born in Tananarive, lives and works in Geneva) often borrows baroque imagery inhabited by chimeric figures to reproduce what he describes as “dystopic hallucinations”.

Rose & Mathilde

Rose and Mathilde grew up with each other while searching not only for artistic but also, and above all, spiritual depth. Working since 2015 as a duo, they have created photographs, books, texts, music, performances and a led workshops on breathing practices.

Prem Sahib

Prem Sahib (born in London where he lives and works) makes sculptures and installations that explore formal and autobiographical themes.

Rosario Talevi

Rosario Talevi (born in Buenos Aires, lives and works in Berlin) is an architect interested in critical spatial practice (Rendell), transformative pedagogies and feminist futures, which she explores through various spatial, editorial and curatorial formats.

Time Is Away

Time is Away is the London-based duo Jack Rollo (UK) and Elaine Tierney (Ireland), who work across radio, research and site-specific sound works.

sponsors

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Julie Monot, Invoke to Evoke, 2019» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Manon Briod / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Julie Monot, Invoke to Evoke, 2019» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Victor Delétraz, L’alu les tuait [Aluminum killed them], 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Manon Briod / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Marie Griesmar, Benthic Zone series, 2019-2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Luc Meier / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Marie Griesmar, Benthic Zone series, 2019-2020, (video still)» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Marie Griesmar filming Benthic Zone series at their new underwater location, a few meters away from La Becque during Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Video: Elise Lammer / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Florence Peake, You, Me, Us, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Prem Sahib, Archway; Single Purple Column, 2019» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Adrien Chevalley, Clés Perdues, 2019-2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Jessy Razafimandimby, O.O.O.O.O., performance, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Jessy Razafimandimby performing O.O.O.O.O. during Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Video: Elise Lammer / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Florence Peake, Cave, performative reading, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Luc Meier / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Florence Peake, performing Cave during Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Video: Manon Briod / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Alessandra Novaga, I Should Have Been a Gardener, live, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Alessandra Novara performing her most recent album I Should Have Been a Gardener during Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Video: Elise Lammer / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Modern Nature: Guided tour with Luc Meier (Director of La Becque) and Elise Lammer (Curator), 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Diana Martin / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė, Rūta (Pentatonic), sound performance, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Victor Delétraz, L’alu les tuait [Aluminum killed them], performance, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Luc Meier / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Rose and Mathilde, concert, 2020» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Elise Lammer / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Mathilde and Rose performing their most recent album, Oblivion (2020) during Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Video: Elise Lammer / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque

Exhibition View Groupshow «Modern Nature: An Hommage to Derek Jarman, part II; view on Queering Nature, Round table on 26.09.2020 with Elise Lammer, Anne-Laure Franchette, Rosario Taveli, Jose Caceres Mardones» at La Becque, La Tour-de-Peilz, 2020 / Photo: Julien Gremaud / Courtesy: the artists and La Becque