What Duchamp Abandoned for the Waterfall

Description

During his stay in Switzerland in 1946, Marcel Duchamp spent a few days at the Hotel Bellevue in Chexbres, high above the Lake of Geneva and one of Switzerland's most famous and attractive vistas. The nearby waterfall Le Forestay, cascading through the steeply sloping vineyards of the Lavaux towards the lake, inspired Duchamp's last great masterwork, the assemblage "Aetant donnes: La chute d'eau, Le gaz d'eclairage". He photographed the scenery and included the image to his enigmatic work. The three-dimensional environmental tableau offers an unforgettable and untranslatable experience to those who peer through the two small holes in the solid wooden door. The artist-duo Caroline Bachmann and Stefan Banz found out where exactly Duchamp stood with his camera and reversed the situation. They took countless pictures of the breathtaking views of the lake, the high mountains of the Savoy Alps across and the vineyards of the Lavaux along its shore. Their work "What Duchamp Abandoned For the Waterfall" consists of more than 150 colour photographs, atmospheric images of one of Switzerland's most extraordinary and attractive landscapes. The new book "What Duchamp Abandoned For the Waterfall" presents this previously unpublished work for the first time. The accompanying essay looks at the artist's research on the relevance of Duchamp's Aetant donnes, how he made use of the location for his artistic intentions and what photographing this particular waterfall meant to him.

Caroline Bachmann, born in Lausanne, Switzerland, did her artistic education at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Geneva, Switzerland. She has been working in Spain 1987-90 where she co-founded the agency V.I.T.R.I.O.L. in Barcelona in 1990, and in Italy 1991-2002, participating in the ORESTE projects in Rome 1997-2000 that were featured in the Italian pavillion at the Venice Biennale 1999. Her work has been presented in solo and group shows in Italy and Switzerland. She has been a professor painting and drawing at the Haute Ecole d'Art et de Design in Geneva since 2007. Stefan Banz, born in Sursee near Lucerne, Switzerland, read art history, German literature and literary criticism at the University of Zurich. He was co-founder of the museum of contemporary art Kunsthalle Luzern in Lucerne in 1989 and the museum's artistic director 1989-93. He has been working as a self-taught freelance artist since 1993, using various media and techniques (photography, video, painting, installation). He has been awarded various prizes for his work which has been presented internationally in solo and group shows. Banz was appointed as curator for the Swiss pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2005 and works also as a writer of fiction and dramatic works and of critical texts on art and artists.