The artists in the exhibition LIVES: Art Brut and Life Courses have in common the creation of all or most of their works at an advanced age. Following an upheaval in their lives, such as a change of social status or place of residence, they seized a creative liberty free of any technical or theoretical background.. Their artistic practice bears witness to a daily commitment going back several years for some and several decades for others. Paintings, photographs, writings, sculptures, assemblages and drawings reveal the singular aesthetic universes they have developed.
The result of an exemplary collaboration between the Swiss Centre for Expertise in Life Course Research (LIVES Centre) and the Collection de l'Art Brut, LIVES: Art Brut and Life Courses presents seven artists who also share the fact that they lived in Switzerland: Eugénie Nogarède (1882–1951), Gaston Teuscher (1903–1986), Anna Kahmann (1905–1995), Eugenio Santoro (1920–2006), Hans Krüsi (1920–1995), Benjamin Bonjour (1917–2000) and Madeleine Lanz (1936–2014). This partnership has made possible an exhibition project that takes into account the general context of their creative process and the social characteristics on which the notion of Art Brut is partly based.
The Swiss Centre for Expertise in Life Course Research (LIVES Centre) opened in January 2011. For its studies and comparisons of individual trajectories and the hazards and vulnerabilities they are subject to, it works closely with researchers in psychology, sociology, social psychology, socio-economics and demography, from the universities of Lausanne, Geneva, Bern, Fribourg and Zurich, as well as the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland.
Curator: Pauline Mack, assistant curator at the Collection de l'Art Brut
The Lives. Art Brut and lives courses in the medias:
Uniscope, Lysiane Christen, L'art hors normes, oasis des âmes cabossées, 27 juin 2022
Le Temps, Elisa de Halleux, "La création face aux orages intérieurs", 23 août 2022
