A book dedicated to artistic professions in Switzerland, including Geneva

There are various ways to promote and perpetuate the know-how that few artisans in the world have mastered. The European Crafts Days (JEMA) are an example. In the same way as the magazine “Tribune des Arts” which makes a point of constantly highlighting them.

But there are also Books that appear on the subject. More rarely concerning Switzerland. This is the mission that the Arthena association has given itself. Founded in Geneva in 2022, it recently published the collection Artisans et métiers d’art at Éditions Alpaga, which includes three works linked to a canton: Geneva, Valais, Vaud.

Each features ten artisans. It was reporter Sébastien Ladermann who went to meet them. Since 2014, the man has produced textual and photographic content on the subject for the French-speaking press. It must be said that many of these exciting professions are little known and some could well disappear if the attention of young people was not regularly captured through this type of initiative. How many craftsmen who deeply love their profession fail to find a successor or disappear before they can train one?

In the edition dedicated to the canton of Geneva, we notably mention Nicolas Berthoud, experienced navigator and master sailmaker in Vernier. He and his partner make around 350 sails per year. They are intended as much for pleasure boats, recent and old, as for competition boats. Here, high-tech materials are king and the sails can measure tens, even hundreds of square meters. The powerful sewing machines enabling their production require their operator to work with their body half immersed in a pit.

Jérôme Blanc is a wood turner in Carouge. A know-how that is both subtle and perilous, which he understands in an artistic way but which no school teaches in Switzerland. As for the Buckel family, they are ocularists; she shapes custom-made glass prostheses that are more real than life.

Sylvie Lefebvre-Guerreiro has been editor-in-chief of Tribune des Arts magazine since 2021. Journalist with the same title since January 2000, she specializes in art, watchmaking and jewelry.More info

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