Exhibition 2021

In early 2020, preparations for Môtiers ‘Art en plein air’ were in full swing. Artists were selected, projects were submitted and the village was preparing to welcome thousands of visitors. But in mid-March, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the team to postpone the event until 2021.

A new challenge emerged: organising an open-air exhibition adapted to health restrictions. The team rallied round, and the artists remained committed despite the uncertainties and unprecedented constraints: border controls, quarantines, shortened stays. The set-up time was extended, and the reception was made more comfortable.

In an intense but joyful atmosphere, local artists and craftspeople forge precious links. Môtiers 2021, marked by the pandemic context, saw the emergence of works evoking isolation, escape or the need for links. The artists, deprived of contact for too long, have come up with powerful, monumental creations that call for exchange.

This is a special edition, fragile and powerful, reflecting the times.

Breaking with the tradition of a poster designed by an artist, Roman Signer, who was asked to design the poster for Môtiers 2020 – which will become Môtiers 2021 – proposed a photograph.

A simple wooden hut hit by a powerful surge of water, a forest at the back, water and sand – an environment that might remind you of Môtiers.

But no, this is a work by Signer, an artist who likes to play with water, fire, explosions, anything that might disturb our peace and quiet. Like in 2007, when he erected a huge blue cross – a provocation in the land of the Green Fairy – or in 2011, when he smashed a public bench that had done nothing to him…

Here, the threat hangs over an indeterminate landscape, calm on the face of it, but disturbed by this great white spot that falls – or rises? You can never be sure of anything with Roman.