Exhibitions 2015

On 22 June 1985, we inaugurated our first exhibition, then called Exposition suisse de sculpture Môtiers 85, with sixty artists. Most had chosen a work that had already been created, but a few had created it on site. A lot of transport… and concrete bases.

Thirty years later, on 20 June 2015, the seventh edition brought together sixty-two artists. This time, the majority of the works were created on site, in close association with the environment: wood from the nearby forests, shelters, refuges, experiments, stories and invented legends.

The local people are always on hand to welcome the artists with curiosity, openness… and patience in the face of the comings and goings of the machinery needed for the installation.

Once little-known, the village of Môtiers now attracts a loyal following from all over the world. And the magic of discovery, present in 1985, continues to work today – and, let’s hope, for a long time to come.

For the 2015 edition, we asked Daniel Spoerri to design the poster. The artist is one of the last sacred monsters of twentieth-century art, a member of the Nouveaux Réalistes, close to Fluxus, the panic movement and the Collège de Pataphysique. He exhibited in Môtiers in 1989 and 1995.

He has offered us two poster designs. In response to our enthusiastic thanks, he wrote: “Glad you like my doodles. Salute.”

We selected, scanned and reproduced the poster and presented it to the artist at his extraordinary Giardino, an eighteen-hectare sculpture park in Seggiano, Tuscany.

Spoerri examines it for a moment, then says: “Take a walk around the park, I’m going to put some green back in; this is a nature exhibition, isn’t it?

We meet up for lunch and he brings back the poster, highlighted in green with coloured pencil. “It’s better! And it is.