Dolmen: A Short History 2000 – 2005
September 18, 2005
Edited by F. Quennoz, D. Grüninger,
S. Donzé & P. Donzé
There is probably no such a thing as a ‘right moment’ to take stock of experiences. At the risk of jumping to conclusions, Dolmen would like to deliver by the present work a first-hand account of the way in which contemporary art and music could co-act within the most dramatic of natural surroundings or developed environments.
Dolmen’s starting point was to investigate unfamiliar territories. Yet, as the story has unfolded, the scene’s cruelty towards the artists and musicians, its urge to stifle them, was only equalled by the formidable wealth of creation which then emerged, almost organically. Unlike some agitators, we do not have much faith in the unfettered virtue of the crossover. Not to coin a phrase, the locus, through its emotional charge and symbolic content, does curate the exhibition.
Events have been staged in Europe’s biggest underground lake, in Saint-Léonard (1999); in the Grande Dixence (2000), the world’s largest dam; in the Jesuit Church of Sion (2001); under the glass roof of the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva (2001); in the nature reserve at Derborence (2002); in the Former Penitentiary of Valère (2003); in the Chausse-Coq artists’ studio in Geneva (2004); as well as in the Lötschberg Tunnel (2005), a great tunnel bored through the Alps.
The book consists of eleven chapters, including visual artwork by Daniela Grüninger and two CDs edited by Frederick Quennoz. It features text contributions by Paolo Colombo, Charlotte Hug, Richard Jean, Tomas Korber, Günter Müller, Toshi Nakamura, and Keith Rowe.
With the support of Pro Helvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland
* The contents present in PUBLICATIONS and CASS are not for sale. They are presented to the public only for archival and experimental purposes in order to develop sound, spatial and visual research.
