Connections (Correnspondaces), Iron, paint, 1000 x 750 x 510 cm, 2014

Bex & Arts, Bex / Rolex Learning Center, Lausanne, 2014

Correspondances/Connections is a monumental, abstract sculptural line harking back to the international railroad train lines connecting Bex with the rest of Europe during the Belle Epoque.

By his stylization of those connection routes, the artist places the exhibition site Bex directly in touch with its own history and the whole world. In the early 20th century, Bex-les-Bains was a tourist attraction serving as an international travel destination ; today, it is a haven as well as a site harboring important industries, so that the link with the rest of the world has become mainly economic. Rooted in a specific historical and social context, this railroad network extract nonetheless represents a trigger point as one of those units whose form can be multiplied ad infinitum, a rhizomatic archetype. As in many of his other recent pieces, Pascal Häusermann found inspiration in the geometric patterns of the Alhambra mosaics. In this piece, he formally and conceptually underscores the creation of relational links, the exchange and circulation of merchandise, information and persons but, as well, from a biological point of view, of molecules and, philosophically, of thought. Correspondances/Connections belongs to an artistic approach centered on diverting power symbols. As such, this piece represents a one-off model of a lack of differentiation, suggesting the decentralization of man and reminding us of an underlying ideal of democracy.