Contemporary art comes to the former chancellery of Sion with a double exhibition at the Valais Art Museum. The newly renovated building exhibits the works of Raphael Stucky, winner of the Manor Valais prize, and the duo Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann until March 2025.
The artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann present installations that play with the architecture of the place, natural light and its prison past, space and perspectives. With installations with modern shapes, materials and colors, in their exhibition “Lang/Baumann” they redefine volumes and modify our perception of space.
If the works modify our perception of the place, they integrate perfectly, taking advantage of the architectural elements of the building of more than two centuries of the former chancellery of Sion. Like the installation “The Beautiful Tube”, a long tube which is nested in a window. Upon entering, the visitor finds himself folded in half, in a confined space, reminiscent of the cells of yesteryear. At the end of this corridor, a new viewpoint is offered to the public on a raised platform, a sort of balcony open to the outside world.
An exhibition to see and listen to
The basement houses the work of Raphael Stucky, winner of the Manor Valais 2024 prize, under the title “Troposonic”. His ceramic sculptures represent suitcases that are motionless and yet leaning in suspension, as if pulled by invisible beings. Each suitcase has a particular shape, recalling for one a coffin, for the other an instrument or even speakers.
Small immobile objects, but which have the power to orient us in the exhibition and to question us about their destination. A destination that immerses the work in a political field. Are these suitcases those of vacationers, exiles or migrants? Laurence Schmidlin, director of the Musée d’art du Valais and curator of this exhibition, explains in the Vertigo show on September 24 that Raphael Stucky “fits in there in a more political field with the question of migration (…) But when you only have one suitcase, or nothing at all, what do you take?”.
“Troposonic” further exploits the acoustics of the premises. The work “Cage to Cage” questions human overconsumption, displaying a film of sparrows storming supermarket food crates. The soundtrack, composed by the artist, amplifies the nervous and frenetic sounds of the birds.
This double exhibition marks the end of the renovation of the old chancellery and is part of the Collines de Sion museum and cultural center project which could see the light of day by 2030.
Sujet radio: Layla Shlonsky
Adaptation web: Sébastien Foggiato
Raphael Stucky, “Troposonic”; Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, “Lang/Baumann”, Musée d’art du Valais at the former chancellery of Sion, from September 21, 2024 to March 30, 2025.
