Nicolas Delaroche

Allures Anonymes - 2023 - Ferme de la Chapelle

Nicolas Delaroche presents a captivating series of photographs capturing private collections worldwide, offering a glimpse into the usually unseen. Since its inception in 2008, this project has unveiled intimate fragments from Swiss, Chinese, Brazilian, and French collections, each a sanctuary for cherished artworks.

Within these domestic settings, a dwindling aesthetic endures, born from the harmonious coexistence of art and everyday life. Liberated from the confines of museums, these evanescent masterpieces now commune with the vibrant tapestry of ordinary objects. They engage in dialogues with local spaces and materials, converse with the reflections on glass and the weighty embrace of concrete, and mirror themselves in the plastics and mirrors of their newfound abodes.

Through astute framing, deliberate positioning, and skillful material selection, Allures Anonymes lays bare the private lives of domestic artworks, inviting viewers to witness their silent narratives.

The exhibition took place from March 18, 2023, to May 7, 2023
The conception of the exhibition was carried out by Adrien Payet and Nicolas Delaroche

Ferme de la Chapelle
Lancy, Switzerland

Over the past ten years, I have been pursuing an interdisciplinary career as a contemporary visual artist. My work has received numerous awards including the Pro Helvetia Prize for Emerging Photographers, an exhibition project at the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture, and an invitation to create a Kunst am Bau at the Chamblandes Gymnasium in Pully, Switzerland.

In my artistic practice, I strongly believe in shifting the photographic medium towards new supports such as ceramics. Since 2009 I have also been questioning the status of art pieces and their relationship to domestic space. I have carried out these photographic investigations within private art collections in various countries, notably China, Brazil and France.

As a freelance photographer, I choose to work mainly on projects relating to architecture and the arts. These projects stemming from public institutions and private commissions consist of documenting exhibits, reproducing artists' works and photographing architectural structures.

I live and work in Lausanne, Switzerland and Clamecy, France.

Write me an Email

Instagram on my research, artistic practice and latest commissions

For irregular updates Newsletter

Download the full biography written by Eléonor de Pesters: English or French (pdf)

Keywords:
Arts and their contexts, Architecture, Collections, Geometry, Minerality, Natural light, Surfaces, Vulcans

Member:
IG Architekturfotografie Schweiz
near. swiss association for contemporary photography

Credits:
Website by No Plans
Typeface Rather by Or Type

Never Seen Brazil - 50 Private art collections from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília and Ribeirão Preto.

First Seen China - 30 Private art collections from Beijing, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong

First Seen is a photographic investigation on private art collections in China. In 2016, over a four-month period, I captured 30 collections in Beijing, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Hong Kong.

Through this series, I wish not only to reveal the interior of Chinese art collections, almost unknown to date, but also the link between artworks and China's domestic environment, which has been undergoing a complete transformation since 1992.
The photographs were printed on canvas and before being integrated on hanging scrolls, which are traditionally used to present calligraphies. Through this gesture, I combine both ancestral technique and modernity-a constant practice for Chinese society as a result of its rich history and the political will to leap forward.

Works:
109 x 89 cm Printed on canvas
182 x 111 cm Mounted on hanging scroll

This serie has been shown at:
2018 Power of the Image, International Photography Exhibition, Datong, China
2018 DOJO, BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland
2018 Biel Festival of Photography, Biel, Switzerland
2017 Constellation, Tap Seac Gallery, Macau
2017 First Seen, Zhongshan, China

This project has been made possible through the generous support of :
Pro Helvetia, Fondation Casino Barrière, Canton de Vaud, Ville de Lausanne, Fondation Sandoz, Volkart Stiftung

Etude de l’écho - 2013

"Study of the echo" was carried out in the apartment of the collectors Claudine and Sven Widgren under the invitation of the curator Karine Tissot for the MAMCO in Geneva which received an important part of the collection as an endowment.

The apartment was saturated with works, for the most part of abstract movement. I sought to bound this work within the constrains of a new image format, the circle. This makes it possible to isolate the works from each other and to strengthen the dialogue with the historical furniture. The color variations visible in the circle frame are the echo of the subject in the tube that I used as a tool for shooting.

Through the images in this series we successively visit the living room, dining room, office, kitchen, bedroom and the balcony with the impression of looking through a keyhole. In addition to using a novel visual format I wanted to work with the notion of passage.

This work was published under the title "De la géométrie sur les murs" and published by L'APAGE and Baconnière Arts.
ISBN-13: 978-2940462087

Le temps d’un reflet - Travail in situ - 2012

This set of images began when meeting of the collector Anne-Shelton Aaron and viewing a glimpse of her whole collection through the 2 square-meter mirror placed in the center of the living room.

Invited to produce a new way of looking at her collection, I cut out several mirrors of different sizes and shapes, and placed them in the throughout the apartment to capture the artworks in the mirrors' reflection. My camera was no longer aimed directly at the work, but rather at the inverted reflections in the mirrors. As a result of a three dimensional effect, the shapes in the mirror were distorted, explaining the deformed appearance of each photograph.

This work has been the subject of an in-situ exhibition, replacing the original artworks seen in the photographs. Selected photographs have also been exhibited at the Christopher Gerber Gallery and Mobilab Gallery.

Poster for the exhibition (pdf)

Commissioned - Architecture

In this selection of commissioned architecture photographs, I took the liberty of attaching some shots of my urban flaneries. Featured architects:

ACarré, Adolf Franz Heep, Atelier d’architecture Ivan Kolecek, Boegli Kramp architecte, Claude Paillard et Peter Leemann architectes, Esposito & Javet architectes, Gregory Brunisholz, Jacques Pilon, Kunik de Morsier, Luscher Architectes SA, Marcel Maillard, Miguel Guedes, Müller Schnörringer Architekten, Musy & Vallotton architectes with Ivan Kolecek, NOTAN OFFICE, OONNONNO, Oscar Niemeyer, Renate Buser and Galleti & Matter architects, Sverre Fehn, Tekhne and Geninasca Delefortrie architects, Vilela & Gordon Arquitectos

De la rencontre, Lausanne: Architecture du détail

Vitaminoïd - 2009

Vitaminoïd explores the huge art collection of the pharmaceutical company Roche at its headquarters in Basel. Many works in the collection were designed with architecture in mind, with some magnificent examples of "Kunst am Bau". It was from this point on that I began to arrange my compositions in more geometric ways and with more abstractions through the support of architecture.

This work has been shown at:
2011 Stratus, La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland
2010 Vitaminoïd 2, Aperture Gallery, New York, USA
2009 Vitaminoïd, Roche Art Gallery, Basel, Switzerland

Publication:
Schaufenster für junges Kunstschaffen, RocheKunst , 2015

Capharnaüm - 2008

Capharnaüm takes a look behind the scenes at museums. Over a period of one year, I visited six institutions ranging from art museums to natural history museums in different cities in Switzerland. My intention was to show that which is invisible to the public and to show the life which comes alive beyond the picture rails.

Museums: MAMCO, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Genève, Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum der Kulturen Basel, Natur Historisches Museum Bern

This work has been shown at:
2010-13 reGeneration 2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; Aperture Gallery, New York; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town; Pékin Fine Arts Gallery, Beijing ...
2011 Stratus, La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland
2009 Capharnaüm, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

Publication:
2010 ReGeneration 2, Thames & Hudson

Book Tropographies 2015-2020 published by TSAR Books

Tropographies 2015-2020 brings together a selection of photographs taken by Nicolas Delaroche in 41 exhibition venues worldwide and subsequently manipulated. These are accompanied by a collection of abstract forms based on architectural sketches made by the artist. The compositions enter into a dialogue with a series of texts written by Gabrielle Boder.

GET A COPIE - 28 CHF free shipping for Switzerland and Europe

ISBN 978-2-940613-06-9
Graphic design : GUNMAD Riso: Frau Steiner
44 pages, 18.5 × 25.7 cm, French + English, Soft cover, elastic binding, Black and yellow risograph printing + Indigo
Tropographie L'écho Indiana celebrates the release of the book and the exhibition with a signed edition of 30 copies + 5 artist prints. 368 x 265mm - Archival printing and screen printing on wallpaper
L'écho Indiana - Limited edition - 40 CHF free shipping for Switzerland and Europe

Tropographie - 2015-19

For many years, I have obsessively photographed museums, which resulted in a large collection of dormant pictures. The wanted to give life to these pictures and play with reworking these sacrosanct places which are museums. This gave birth to the Tropographies.

What I have called a Tropographie is a photography that will be digitally manipulated drawing loosely from the way the "trope" rhetorical device functions in literature. I established two rules to guide this manipulation process: first, only materials within the untouched frame of the picture can be used-that is, nothing external to this frame can be brought it. Second, I have a maximum of one hour to work on a given Tropographie.

This manipulation reveals funny painted characters, condensed spaces on the verge of suffocation, banana peels on 15th century ceramics and many other artefacts.

This work has been shown at:
2018 Tropographies, ZQM, Berlin, Germany
2017 Offline, Up & Coming, Zürich, Switzerland
2017 Nicolas, Urgent Paradise, Lausanne, Switzerland
2016 NEAR - Biennale de la Photographie, Mulhouse, France
2016 SLAGPILE, Stadio, Vevey, Switzerland
2016 Espèce d’image, BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland

Publication:
In the pipeline for spring 2019!

My collection covers 87 locations on January 2019 :
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Abbaye de Villers, Alte Nationalgalerie, Altes Museum, Art et Marges Musée, Atelier de Cézanne, Base sous-marine, Bode Museum, Boijmans Van Beuningen, Bozar, British Museum, CAPC Bordeaux, Centrale For Contemporary Art, China Academy of Art Xiangshan, Chongqing Art Gallery, documenta 14, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Fondation Jan Michelski pour l'écriture, Fondazione Prada, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Grand-Hornu, Hangzhou History Museum, Hong Kong Museum of History, KML, Kunsthaus Zürich, La Biennale di Venezia, Le Centre Pompidou, Le Consortium, Les Rencontres d'Arles, LWL, MAC USP, MAC's, Maison Autrique, Maison Rouge, MAM SP, MAMCO, Martin Gropius Bau, Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, MOMA, MUDAC, Musée d'art de Pully, Musée de l'Acropole d'Athènes, Musée de l'Arles et de la Provence antiques, Musée de la Chasse, Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs et du Design Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Ho Chi Minh, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Musée du Cinquantenaire, Musée M, Musée Magnin, Musée Rude, Musée Unterlinden, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Museo Correr, Museo De Santa Cruz, Museo del Romanticismo Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo Nacional de Arqueología Madrid, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Museum aan de Stroom, Museum Rietberg, MSK, Museums Insel, Muzee Ostende, Neues Museum Berlin, Palais Rumine, Palais Tokyo, Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Fortuny, Pergamonmuseum, Pinacoteque Sao Paulo, Power Station of Art, Prado, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, S.M.A.C.K, Skulptur Projekte Münster, STAM, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Unicorn Center for Art, UZH - Zoologisches Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, West Lake Museum, Whitechapel, Wiels.

Mutatis Mutandis - 2010

The Mutatis Mutandis series is a continuation of an earlier work entitled Capharnaüm for which I had conducted a behind-the-scenes investigation of museums. With Mutatis Mutandis, I move on to the public space. The Skulpturhalle in Basel, which has only copies of Greek and Roman statues, is unique in that most of the pieces are freely movable. Antiquity, embodied by the sculptures, is confronted with the modernity of the five monochromes created for the series. The monochromes are also intended to indicate that all ancient sculptures were originally painted in bright colours, an aspect of Greek art that is often unknown.

This work has been shown at:
2011 Rathania’s -ars similis casus, Musée Rath, Genève, Switzerland
2011 Stratus, La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland
2010 Innuendo, Villa Dutoit, Genève, Switzerland

Publication:
2012 New Graphics for Contemporary Designers, Edition Idpure

Fabrique des rêves - 2017

La fabrique des rêves is a set of ceramic sculptures on which I integrated photographs into the glaze. The sculptures were then immersed in a river during six months to subject them to the passage of time.

These photographs are drawn from my collection of museums images, but none of these photographs contains any actual artwork. The sculpture therefore becomes the artworks that I imagine in that exhibition space. The dialogue between ceramic and photography creates hybrid sculptures, half-figurative half-abstract, questioning existing categories of art.

8 ceramic sculptures with digital transfer on glaze.
3 of them where plunged in the Loire river, in France, for a period of 7 months.

This work has been shown at:
2018 Art Paris, Paris, Mobilab gallery
2018 Collectible, Bruxelles, Mobilab gallery
2017 Period Room I, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland

Pictures by Simon Rimaz - copyright Mobilab Gallery

Ex Foto - 2016-19

Ex-Foto is devoted to man's relationship with landscape, minerality and fire. The images are subjected to the high temperatures of an oven and as a result follow the surface of the glaze to become one with the earth. The works can remind us of archaeological findings, ready to embrace the dust of time.

This work has been shown at:
2018 Art Paris, Paris, Mobilab gallery
2018 Collectible, Bruxelles, Mobilab gallery
2017 Period Room I, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
2015 Le patrimoine présent, Galerie Christopher Gerber, Lausanne, Switzerland

Domo - 2017

For the exhibition Period Room I, I worked on existing tableware for the needs of the dinners organized during the exhibition. The plates are covered with a digital transfer of exhibition plans that I accumulate as I visit museums, galleries or independent art spaces. The intervention on the tea set comes from a family event, which allows to discover the different protagonists depending on whether it is the cup or the plate.

A- Dinner plate - Floorplan: Proportio, 2015. Palazzo Fortuny, Venise, Italie
B- Family service - Legion of Honour Aunt Benedict & Deutsche Oper, Berlin

This work has been shown at:
2017 Period Room I, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland

Le présent patrimoine - 2015

Le présent patrimoine is the story of a month-long trip to the Cyclades. Traveling from island to island, each time I took with me both an emotion and a stone, thus composing my garden of memories.

The story immortalized by the imprint of the stones and the colors of the glaze on the front and back of each plate will nourish tables and walls, body and mind.

Greek Cyclades islands: Serifos, Milos, Aanafi, Amorgos, Schinoussa, Folegandros

4 Series numbered from 1 to 7 copies
Composed of 6 plates + wooden box
Glazed ceramic
ø 26 cm

This work has been shown at:
2018 Collectible, Bruxelles, Mobilab gallery
2015 Le présent patrimoine, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland

Featured in:
Wallpaper Magazine, Madame Figaro

Coyote in China - 2016

The adventures of Coyote in China is a series of 33 black and white paintings made by students from the Chinese Academy of Arts Hangzhou based on screenshot from the cartoon Road Runner that I modify with elements of my research on collectors and collected impressions from my stay in China. Each week, students were asked to choose an image to paint for the following week. Despite a common ground, each painting is unique because of how each student decided to take on the job.

Acryl on canvas
29 x 38cm

This work has been shown at:
2017 Period Room I, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
2017 Constellation, Tap Seac Gallery, Macau
2016 West Lake Story, CAA, Hangzhou, China

and now that I have told you all about, I think i’m cured - 2014

The paintings in the series "and now that I have told you all about, I think i'm cured" are the synthesis of my reflections from my thesis entitled: the coyote and the mouse.

Each painting presents an idea, a path or an advice!

Acryl on canvas
29 x 38cm

This work has been shown at:
2014 Accrochage, Musée des beaux arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
2014 Captcha, Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland

TEASER I: Index & Scripts - 2023 - FMAC

Collectif Détente's take on the FMAC collection

What narratives can emerge from a collection of contemporary art spanning nearly 70 years of commissions and acquisitions? Formerly known as the City of Geneva's Decoration Fund, the FMAC it's viewed as a dynamic archive shaped by subjective choices and political decisions. The TEASER project scrutinizes the collection, emphasizing the interplay between the visible and the hidden, as well as frontstage and backstage dynamics. By juxtaposing traditional research approaches with considerations of the collection's strengths, overlooked pieces, and unique aspects, the exhibition uncovers both its documentary and fictional potential.

Nicolas Delaroche contributes to this exhibition with his creation of photographic wallpaper depicting works by Miriam Cahn, Sylvie Fleury, Alexandre Meylan, Fabrice Gygi and Théodore Strawinsky. His large installations serve as an immersive gateway into the narratives of these distinguished artists and the locations where they are presented. Furthermore, Delaroche plays a central role in orchestrating the various thematic elements conceived by the curatorial committee.

Collectif Détente : Gabrielle Boder, Tadeo Kohan et Camille Regli
The exhibition took place from April 6, 2023, to June 25, 2023

Cosa Mentale - 2022 - ESPACE CHUV - Lausanne

Un papier peint de 19m sur 3m60 donne à voir vingt-six photographies prises dans une dizaine d’espaces, lieux hospitaliers et lieux de stockage, mettant au même niveau la collection d’art du CHUV et la collection médico-sanitaire de l’IHM. Une série de photographies supplémentaires est exposée à l’IHM.

L'artiste utilise un film radio fluorographique noir et blanc utilisé dans les diagnostics de maladies pulmonaires. Celui-ci possède une esthétique forte, le rendu de la lumière est particulier et le grain est très marqué. L’apport de couleurs, peintes à l’aquarelle, ne souligne et n’identifie pas comme le ferait la colorisation dans le domaine médical, mais invite le regard, liant les images entre elles et déclenchant des récits visuels. Une conjoncture qui résulte des intersections entre des objets et des espaces, rendues visibles par des modes de production qui impliquent le regard et la main de l’artiste.

Si les images sont vides de présence humaine, elles en portent la trace. Il s’agit d’une représentation des collections qui s’assimile davantage à celle d’un souvenir, qui comporte des manques et provoque la sensation de « déjà-vu » accompagnée d’étrangeté. L’artiste déploie de façon monumentale « une chose » qui appartiendrait encore au monde des idées, ce que Léonard De Vinci appelait la Cosa mentale, « la chose mentale ».

Agathe Naito & Rosalie Vasey
Chargées du programme VU.CH, l’art à l’hôpital

Exposition du 8 septembre 2022 au 4 décembre 2022

ESPACE CHUV
Rue du Bugnon 46
1011 Lausanne
Switzerland

Studiolo - 2022 - CACY

The Contemporary Art Center of Yverdon-les-Bains (CACY) has invited artist Nicolas Delaroche to exhibit his series Tropographie. Inspired by the Italian Studiolo, a precursor to the Renaissance cabinet of curiosities, this exhibition stands out for its focus on study. The curator's aim is to create a space conducive to reading and contemplation.

Nicolas Delaroche tailored his series for the exhibition by creating a unique wallpaper, taking into account the specific architecture of the room. At first glance, one notices geometric shapes derived from his architectural collection, playing with the perception of space and potential openings. Upon closer inspection, a fine line of Tropographie is revealed, inviting us to explore various museum interiors, manipulated by the artist.

Inkjet on wallpaper - 7695 x 2265 mm

The exhibition took place from December 4, 2022, to December 23, 2023
CACY - Centre d'Art Contemporain — Yverdon-les-Bains

That’s all folks! - 2021

Photographic fresco
Made up of 198 ceramic tiles
2.55 x 2.16 m (L x H)
Weight about : 200 kg

This photographic fresco is for the artist an object of memory. By using raw materials related to the site, this work reveals an underground heritage of the urban network of the city of Lausanne. This tunnel will disappear during the future modernization of the Lausanne train station.

This dialogue between matter and decompartmentalization of this inaccessible space leads the spectator to question himself on the architectural history of the city. This work invites us to enter an underground world, a tunnel built in 1968 by the Swiss Post Office, where art and space feed each other. Capturing the essence of the place, we can become aware of the invisible networks that constitute our urban territory, of the central place that the Swiss railway network occupies in our daily lives, and of the redevelopment of these networks in the coming years.

The first idea of the project was based on a principle of circularity, aiming to use only the resources coming from the site of La Rasude, and more precisely from the ceramic tiles. Unfortunately, the latter was bound to mortar containing asbestos. Nicolas Delaroche wanted to question our consumption of building materials and act against the depletion of resources, by giving them a second artistic life. Beforehand, a photographic documentation was carried out on the site, because of the historical value of the architectural specificities of the place. The selected shot was then printed and applied to the 198 glazed tiles and fired in a ceramic kiln. The mineral pigments of the image after melting at more than 880 ° in the glaze for eternity.

L’écho Indiana - 2020

L’exposition «L’écho Indiana» a été pensée par Gabrielle Boder et Nicolas Delaroche à partir de la publication «Tropographie 2015–2020» réunissant les images de l’artiste et les textes de la curatrice. A l’occasion de la sortie du livre édité par TSAR Books à Indiana, Vevey, l’exposition se conçoit comme une conversation faite d’échos formels et anecdotiques, d’affinités électives et intuitives entre des œuvres, des individus et des histoires.

Indiana, Vevey du 22 au 29 août
Chemin du Verger 10, 1800 Vevey, Suisse

«L’écho Indiana»
Avec: Bruno Aeberli, Adrien Chevalley, Nicolas Geiser, Aloïs Godinat, Flora Mottini, Nicolas Raufaste, Delphine Renault, Nora Vetterli et Myriam Ziehli.

Une proposition de Gabrielle Boder et Nicolas Delaroche sur l’invitation de TSAR Books
Avec le soutien de la Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art

Tropographie Grand Tour - zqm, Berlin, Germany -2018

Ten days of residency, four days to complete my grand tour, not in Italy, as was customary, but at the Museumsinsel in Berlin. This resulted in 21 Tropographies embedded in a hybrid object somewhere between a frame and an architectural element.

Pigment print on drawing paper, passepartout board
9.2 x 14.11 cm
unique copy

More about zqm & founder Eric Emery

DOJO Le temple de l’abstraction - BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland - 2018

First Seen, untitled, 2018
109 x 89 cm
Pigment print on canvas
182 x 111 cm
Mounted on hanging scroll

Curator: Frédéric Dialynas Sanchez & Sébastien Leseigneur
Production: L'Éclair

With: Thomas Andrea Barbey, Francis Baudevin, Cléa Chopard, Delphine Coindet, Sylvain Croci-Torti, Oko Ebombo, Christian Floquet, Jean-Sébastien Grill,Marcia Hafif, Hugo Hemmi, Yves Klein, Hervé Laurent, Pierre Leguillon, Renée Levi, Richard Paul Lohse, Romain Löser, Madam & Friends, Anne Minazio, Olivier Mosset, Mountain River Jump, Damián Navarro, Emilie Parendeau, Cyril Porchet, Delphine Renault, Christian Robert-Tissot, Maya Rochat, Jessica Russ, Julie Semoroz, Paz Tanjuaquio, Sebastien Verdon, Galaxia Wang, Baker Wardlaw

First Seen - Biel Festival of Photography, Switzerland - 2018

First Seen, untitled, 2017
109 x 89 cm
Pigment print on canvas
182 x 111 cm
Mounted on hanging scroll

Curator: Sarah Girard & Hélène Joye-Cagnard

With: Constant Dullaart, Sandra Mehl, Lana Mesic, Stefanie Schroeder, Dominique Wyss, Thomas Brasey, Jörg Gläscher, Cassandra Klos, Jaromir Kreiliger, Tymon Markowski, Lucy Ridgard, Ekaterina Sevrouk, Nikita Teryoshin, David Denil, Thomas Kuijpers, Calypso Mahieu, Elisa Larvego, Julien Heimann.

More about the Biel Festival of Photography

Period Room I - Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland - 2017

Cutrains: Palazzo Ducale, Musée du Louvre prints on fabrics
Ilôts: 1 + 2 digital transfer on ceramic, glaze
Ex Foto: transfer on ceramic
Curtain: Museo Correr print on fabric
Tea table: C-Print, Glass, Wood furniture
The adventure of the Coyote in China: Acryl on canvas
Avant-Après: Cheminée, Wood, Ink-Jet print, HK Pork
Espace d’exposition: Transfer on plates
Cabinet de lecture: Transparacy Print, C-Print, Stones, Furniture
La Fabrique des rêves: digital transfer on ceramic

Inspired by the Period Room model-a popular museographic convention from the 19th century-this exhibition presents an artificial reconstruction of a given historical period set within a space and time where the objects and practices of my daily life are reassessed. The installation features my works as well as pieces from my personal collection.

Press: Le Temps

More about Mobilab gallery

Constellation - Tap Seac Gallery, Macau - 2017

First Seen, untitled, 2017
80 Inkjet print on adhesive paper
21 x 26 cm

Inflated rock, 2017
Fabric
700 x 100 x 250 cm

Coyote in China, 2016
Acryl on canvas
29 x 38 cm

This exhibition presents three different facets of my work. All of this work was produced or started during my residency in China in 2016.

First Seen is a series of photographies exploring private art collections in China and Hong Kong. This unique selection of images was displayed in the main exhibition room of the Tap Saec Gallery. The visitors were invited to explore and discover the images through telescopes placed in the center of the exhibition room. This process allowed each spectator to re-enact the process in which I frame reality through a camera zoom.

The second and third rooms were dedicated to the figure of the Coyote from the animation movie The Road Runner. A figure which I have used as a tool for self-reflecting on my own artistic practice. In the third room, visitors had to navigate around a massive inflatable rock sculpture inspired by landscape from the animated movie in order to see the series of paintings realized in Hangzhou..

Slagpile - Stadio, Vevey, Switzerland - 2016

La Fabrique des rêves, research material
Digital transfer print

Curator: Jacques Duboux & Guillaume Ehinger

With: Jonathan Binet, Katinka Bock, Jacques Bonnard, Francesco Cavaliere, Sylvain Croci-Torti, Nicolas Delaroche, Julien Fischer, Tarik Hayward, Benjamin Husson, Leszek Knaflewski, Thomas Koenig, Sol Lewitt, Miguel Meneses, Timothée Messeiller, Damián Navarro, Roman Ondák, Thobias Rehberger, Jamie Reid, Jessica Russ, Élodie Seguin, Pierrick Sorin, Gavin Turk.

"Slagpile" is a collective exhibition that finds its genesis in the twofold purpose of the place, alternating between an artist's studio and an exhibition space. As an unchanging witness to a cyclical movement, these two identities grant it both the status of a womb and of a receptacle for projects.

This observation is seen as the impetus for a broader reflection on the biography of a work composed of a succession of states within a given lexical field-of which here is an extract:

draft / sketch / test / prototype / model / pre-hanging / hanging

Espèce d’image - BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland - 2016

Cutrains: Musée du Louvre - prints on fabrics
Tropographie: Moma + Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen - inkjet on blue back paper

Curator: Sébastien Leseigneur
Space design: Delphine Renault

With : Giacomo Bianchetti, Charlotte Bonjour, Balthasar Burkhard, Thomas Cullum, Nicolas Delaroche, Philippe Durand, Julien Gremaud, Serge Fruehauf, Livia Johann, Florian Joye, Jeanne Moynot, Aurélie Pétrel, Pablo Réol, Simon Rimaz, Maya Rochat, Patrick Tosani, Mélanie Veuillet.

Grimper aux rideaux - Die Diele, Zürich, Switzerland - 2016

Grimper aux rideaux,literally means climbing the curtain and is French for climbing the walls. The installation can be seen through two windows, with a fountain and a curtain in each.

On the curtains are printed photographic reproductions of two curtains from the Palazzo Ducale and from the two fountains spit out a blue liquid throughout the day in reference to this beautiful prophecy of Germanic alcoholic "blau drinken".

Die Diele is run by Livio Baumgarntner

Plattform 15 - Zürich, Switzerland

Theatron: I, II, III, IV - 2015
Digital transfer on glaze, clay, mirors, stones

Curatorial team: Charlotte Matter, Jessica Bourgoz, Claudio Vogt

With: Camille Besson, Clifford E. Bruckmann, Cédric Eisenring, Gina Folly, Dijan Kahrimanovic, Sabrina Labis, Quentin Lannes, Nihan Somay, Lena Maria Thürings, Baker Wardlaw

Every year, Plattform gives an overview of the work of young artists in Switzerland. The exhibition presents new works by artists who have recently graduated from a Bachelor's or Master's degree at a Swiss art school. The exhibition series, initiated in 2007 by Charlotte Matter, Andreas Mattle and Reto Thüring, has been produced in partnership with the Helvetia Art Prize since 2011.

Publication (PDF 8 MO target: _blank)

More information about Plattform

Le présent patrimoine - Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland - 2015

Le présent patrimoine is the story of a month-long trip to the Cyclades. Traveling from island to island, each time I took with me both an emotion and a stone, thus composing my garden of memories.

The story immortalized by the imprint of the stones and the colors of the glaze on the front and back of each plate will nourish tables and walls, body and mind.

Greek Cyclades islands: Serifos, Milos, Aanafi, Amorgos, Schinoussa, Folegandros

4 Series numbered from 1 to 7 copies
Composed of 6 plates + wooden box
Glazed ceramic
ø 26 cm

Pictures by Daniela & Tonatiuh - copyright Mobilab Gallery

Le patrimoine présent- Galerie Christopher Gerber, Lausanne, Switzerland

Lambda print, aluminium
Plexiglass laminated, cnc cutting, Serifos stone
Duratrans, light box
Digital transfer, ceramic
Inkjet wallpaper
Printing on plexiglass, thermoforming

Le patrimoine présent is the photographic record of a month spent in Greece, in six Cycladic islands. Each part offers a time capsule. This journey through time is neither archaeological nor "crisologique", it is guided by the camera's lens, by taking notes, and collecting symbols.

Each photograph must find both its language and form in order to offer a singular way out to the spectator. Hermann Hesse's Goldmund character is not far away. Like Goldmund, we are pursuing a quest, of which we know neither the purpose nor the finality, except that of discovering a portion of the universe.

House for E.D. - BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland

The optical act of imaginary appearances - 2014
Private art colecction images, beamer, glasse, mirror, microphone, speaker

A House For E. D. is a tribute to the important figure in American literature, Emily Dickinson. It takes as its starting point certain striking elements linked to the poetess' biography and her writings in order to focus on the themes of the house, isolation, introspection, creation and repression. An isolation close to that of the artist in the studio or the photographer in the darkroom. After reading Emily Dickinson's poems, I still have some mental images left. Escapes from her room, distant noises and snippets of ghostly work.

My photographs echo this with scenes combining the windows of the house and art works from a private art collection in Bern. The scenography of the images forms the crucial meeting point between Emily Dickinson's obsessions and my own recurrences.

Curation: Marco Constantini, Danae Panchaud

With: Tonatiuh Ambrosetti, Nicolas Delaroche, Daniela Droz, David Gagnebin-de Bons, Florian Graf, Roberto Greco, Shannon Guerrico.

Production: near. swiss association for contemporary photography

Captcha - Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland - 2014

I am going to be a psychiatrist when I grow up
Inkjet print on Epson semi-gloss, Glass, Nail
56 x 67 cm

now observe and learn
Clay
24 x 24 x 5 cm

and now that I have told you all about, I think i’m cured
Acryl painting on canvas
38.5 x 29 cm

well, I guess, I have been daydreaming ever since I was very young
Porcelaine china paint on plate
Dim: 27 x 27 cm
Edition de 10+2 EA

Exhibition of the diploma work: Master in Contemporary Art Practice at Bern University of the Arts.

With: Samuli Blatter, Florian Bürki, Nicolas Delaroche, Magali Dougoud, Konrad Gruber, Violaine Hayoz, Manuela Imperatori, Silvia Isenschmid, Natalie Reusser, Pascal Schärli, Peter Schreuder, Oliver Stein, Liza Trottet, Elliot Vaucher.

More information about Pasquart, Master CAP @ HKB

Pan’o’ram’i’cal’ly - Forde, Genève, Switzerland - 2014

Pan'o'ram'i'cal'ly is an 8-minute video installation showing sculptural artworks taken out of their urban context and reworked through different media. Placed in the public space, these works are offered to everyone without actually being viewed by everyone. This mixed-media art installation challenges the notions of works of art and questions their context through a reenactment.

Video of the installation > youtube
Album leaflet > PDF

With the generous support of Fondation Casino Barrière.

B/W photographs by Nicolas Haeni.

Accrochage - Musée des beaux arts, Lausanne, Switzerland - 2014

and now that I have told you all about, I think i’m cured - 2014
Acryl on canvas
29 x 38cm

Accrochage [Vaud 2014]
The exhibition presents the contemporary artistic scene in Vaud.

With: Céline Amendola, Emmanuelle Antille, Sophie Ballmer, Delphine Burtin, Maëlle Cornut, Sylvain Croci-Torti, Nicolas Delaroche, Guillaume Dénervaud, Simon Deppierraz, Noémie Doge, Jacques Duboux, Livia Salome Gnos, Anne Hildbrand, Jean-Christophe Huguenin, Florian Javet et Michael Rampa, Lucie Kohler, Stéphane Kropf, Mingjun Luo, Emanuele Marcuccio, Line Marquis, Genêt Mayor, Sébastien Mennet, David Monnet, Banu Narciso, Virginie Otth, Jérôme Pfister, Stéphanie Pfister, Nicolas Raufaste, Maya Rochat, Marie-Luce Ruffieux, Léonore Thélin, Arnaud Wohlhauser.

More about Accrochage @ MCBA

Mais enfin, qui êtes-vous? - ESF, Lausanne, Switzerland - 2012

We had to insist that he acquire his first work. But when he started collecting, he didn't stop. We enter Philippe's interior here, it's rudimentary: an office, a gym. But it's his house and it's well decorated. Those knowledgeable in art will be able to recognize an Agius, a Bonnard, a Brunisholz, a Count, a Delaroche, a Hochuli, a Kropf, a Pfeiffer, a Rochat, a Verdon and a Zouari, all collected by Philippe Sapin-whether a real or an imaginary collector, does it even matter?

Curation: Nicolas Delaroche

With: Mathilde Agius, Jacques Bonnard, Grégory Brunisholz, Claudia Comte, Nicolas Delaroche, Andreas Hochuli, Laurent Kropf, Walter Pfeifer, Maya Rochat, Sébastien Verdon, Andrey Zouari

ECAL Photography - Gallery Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, France - 2013

Selected work: Reconnaissance, 2009

This exhibition offers a selection of works by 58 talented young people during their Bachelor's degree in Photography at ECAL. All these images were chosen by curator Nathalie Herschdorfer, who has produced several international projects on emerging photography, as well as Milo Keller, ECAL's program manager, and Alexis Georgacopoulos, ECAL's director. Swiss designer Adrien Rovero specially created the exhibition's scenography.

Hatje Cantzpublished "ECAL Photography" (296 pages, 385 images) a companion book to this this event.

Featured on:
Slash Paris, Les Inrockuptibles,

Photo : ECAL / Emile Barret

Claudius ad Pilatus- Studio, Villa Dutoit, Genève, Switzerland - 2011

Duo Pilatus, Duo Rebus, Duo Institus, Duo Crocus, Duo Cladius, Duo Lausanus
Inket print mounted on pyramid wood frame
102x69 cm

Hibernatus, Agius, Cumulus, Masculinumus, Sugus
Inket print mounted on pyramid wood frame
77x57cm

Complete pdf

Stratus - La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland - 2011

From left > right:

France, 2011
Lambda print mounted on aluminium
49.85 x 49.85 cm

Qui a peur du rouge, jaune et bleu, Renaissance, 2009
Lambda print
50 x 40 cm

Duo Crocus, Caudius ad Pilatus, 2011
Inkjet printed mounted on pyramid frame
102x69 cm

Jodostrol, Vitaminoïd, 2009
Lambda print
73 x 90 cm

Ode To Echo III , Mutatis Mutandis, 2010
Lambda print mounted on aluminium
79 x 100 cm

Bronzage, Capharnäum, 2008
Lambda print mounted on aluminium
56.5 x 67.5cm

Oh ! Cela tient en peu de lettres, 2010
Bench, plaster
200x50cm

More information on La Placette

Innuendo - Villa Dutoit, Genève, Switzerland - 2011

Ode To Echo I, Ode To Echo II, Ode To Echo III - 2010
Lambda print mounted on aluminum, frame
73x100cm

Summer Girl - 2010
Lambda print, bar, frame
40x32.5cm

Lousonna 1, 2 et Collano - 2010
Lambda print, fabrics and coat rack,
33x25cm

À quarante degrés au-dessus de dada - 2009
Lambda print
50 x 40 cm

Oh ! Cela tient en peu de lettres - 2010
Bench, plaster, fabric
200x50cm

Letting Go I - 2010
monochrome

The Innuendo group exhibition presents photographic works and recent videos, often unpublished, and invites the viewer to discover these unexplored worlds. Away from a blatant staging, Innuendo tackles a diffuse fiction that spreads ambiguously and subtly diverts reality.

Curation: Ariane Pollet

With: Dorothée Baumann, Mathieu Bernard-Reymond, Marion Burnier, Nicolas Delaroche, Lorenzo Menoud, Virginie Otth, Annaïk Lou Pitteloud.

Production: near. swiss association for contemporary photography

Publication (PDF target: _blank)

Vitaminoïd- Roche Art Gallery, Basel, Switzerland - 2009

Apivit, Jodostrol, Protavit, Topostasol, Pantopan, Novoprodon, Ovadium, Rimibon, Astibon, Benixol

Lamba print, mounted on aluminium, frame
106 x 89.5 cm

Capharnaüm - Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland - 2009

The young photographer, Nicolas Delaroche, took an interest in the backstage of various Swiss museums. In his images, in the absence of any human presence, objects and sets become, often with humour, the main characters. The Capharnaüm series is ideal for the inauguration of the new exhibition space, which is located in a building where some of the museum's staff have recently moved in: the backstage of the Elysée Museum is also to be revealed.

Press release Musée de l'Elysée

Born 1985 in Laon, France
Works and lives in Lausanne, Switzerland and Clamecy, France

Education
2012- 2014 Hochschule de Künste Bern, CH, Master in Contemporary Art Practice
2005–2009 École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, CH, Bachelor in photography

Solo shows
2023 Allures Anonymes, Ferme de la Chapelle, Lancy, Switzerland
2022 Cosa Mentale, Espace CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland
2021 Memória Moderna, Galerie Máti, Carouge, Switzerland
2018 Tropographie Grand Tour, ZQM, Berlin, Germany
2017 Constellation, Tap Seac Gallery, Macau
2017 First Seen, Zhongshan, China
2017 Period Room I, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
2016 West Lake Story, CAA, Hangzhou, China
2016 Grimper au rideau, Die Diele, Zürich, Switzerland
2015 Le patrimoine présent, Galerie Christopher Gerber, Lausanne, Switzerland
2014 Pan’o’ram’i’cal’ly, Forde, Genève, Switzerland
2012 Le temps d’un reflet - Travail in situ, Anne-Shelton Aaron, Genève, Switzerland
2011 Stratus, La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland
2009 Vitaminoïd, Roche Art Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
2009 Capharnaüm, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland

Group shows (selection)
2023 TEASER I: Index & Scripts, FMAC, Genève, CH
2022 STUDIOLO, CACY, Yverdon-les-Bains, CH
2022 État des lieux, Maison Gaudard, Lausanne, Switzerland
2022 Intérieur contemporain, La Bocca della Verità, Bruxelles, Belgium
2021 FALSCH EGAL, La Placette, Lausanne, Switzerland
2021 Biennale Architettura 2021 with NOTAN OFFICE, Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
2021 Bivouac, La Rasude, Lausanne, Switzerland
2021 February Blues, Valentin 61, Lausanne, Switzerland
2020 L’écho Indiana, Indiana, Vevey, CH
2020 Extraordinaire! MUDAC, Lausanne, Switzerland
2019 Modern Ceramics, curated by Jean-François Declercq, Brussel, Belgium
2019 KNUST Festival, in collaboration with Lionel Ochs, Brussel, Belgium
2018 Power of the Image, International Photography Exhibition, Datong, China
2018 DOJO, BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland
2018 Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography, Biel, Switzerland
2017 Offline, Up & Coming, Zürich, Switzerland
2017 Artist Shoes, Smallville Space, Neuchatel, Switzerland
2017 Nicolas, Urgent Paradise, Lausanne, Switzerland
2017 Anniversaire de l’art, Palais/Galerie C, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2016 Exposition en plein air, Les Brenets, Switzerland
2016 La Grande Place, CACY, Yverdons-les-Bains, Switzerland
2016 NEAR - Biennale de la Photographie, Mulhouse, France
2016 SLAGPILE, Stadio, Vevey, Switzerland
2016 Espèce d’image, BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland
2015 Primo, Palais, Neuchatel, Switzerland
2015 Plattform 15, Zürich, Switzerland
2015 Le présent patrimoine, Mobilab gallery, Lausanne, Switzerland
2014 Accrochage, Musée des beaux arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
2014 Captcha, Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland
2014 House for E.D., BAC/Le commun, Genève, Switzerland
2014 ECAL Photography, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy
2013 For your consideration, PROGR, Bern, Switzerland
2013 Cheese Coma, Espace Abstract, Lausanne, Switzerland
2013 ECAL Photography, Gallery Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, France
2012 Mais enfin, qui êtes-vous?, ESF, Lausanne, Switzerland
2012 Fictions Past/s, Terminal P, Zürich-Kloten, Switzerland
2011 Bancomat, Espace St-Valentin, Lausanne, Switzerland
2011 Rathania’s -ars similis casus, Musée Rath, Genève, Switzerland
2010 Innuendo, Villa Dutoit, Genève, Switzerland
2010 Vitaminoid 2, Aperture Gallery, New York, USA
2010-13 reGeneration 2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; Aperture Gallery, New York; Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town; Pékin Fine Arts Gallery, Beijing ...

Fairs
2019 Collectible, Bruxelles, Mobilab gallery
2018 Art Paris, Paris, Mobilab gallery
2018 Collectible, Bruxelles, Mobilab gallery

Publications (selection)
2022 30 Private art collections in China, art&fiction
2020 Tropographies 2015-20, TSAR Books
2018 CACY [KAKI], n. m., 2013-2017, CACY & Art& Fiction
2016 Guide Contemporain – Volume III, Collectif FLAC
2015 Plattform 15, Kunstwollen
2015 Architecture et patrimoine, Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes
2015 Le patrimoine présent, catalogue d’exposition, Éditions Goyave
2014 111 La Placette, Editions Art&Fiction
2014 Hände weg? Feiheit, Kontrolle und Besitz in den Künsten und im Design, HKB
2014 House for E. D., Editions Art&Fiction
2013 De la geométrie sur les murs, Editions L’Apage et La Baconnière Arts
2013 ECAL Photography, Editions Hatje Cantz
2013 Cheese Coma, Editions Near
2012 New Graphics for Contemporary Designers, Edition Idpure
2011 ELSE, Musée de l’Elysée, IDPURE
2010 ReGeneration 2, Catalogue d’exposition, Editions Thames & Hudson
2010 Vitaminoïd, Cornelia Dietschi, Dir. Roche Art Collection, Basel

Residencies
2021 Cité international des arts, Paris, France
2019 Pivô, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2016 Pro Helvetia, Hangzhou, China
2015 Séguret, France

Conferences
2021 Salon Suisse, Venezia, Italy
2018 PUC, Rio de Janeiro, Brésil
2017 Duddell's, Hong Kong
2016 MOCA, Shanghai, Chine
2016 Star Gallery, Beijing, Chine
2016 École Offshore, Shanghai, Chine
2016 Chinese Academy of Arts, Hangzhou, Chine
2013 ECAL, Lausanne
2009 Capharnäum, Nuit des Musées, Musée Arlaud, Lausanne

Commissioned works
2021-22 Collections of the CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland
2021-23 Kunst am Bau, Gymnase de Chamblandes, Pully, Switzerland
2014 Vaud. Art et Architecture, book published by Canton de Vaud & Edition Favre

Awards and distinctions
2021 Research grant from the Canton of Vaud
2020 Near Prize - for contemporary photography
2019 Emerging photographers' grant — Pro Helvetia
2018 Plat (t) form 2018, Fotomuseum Winterthur
2011 Over Reconstruction, Kunst am Bau, Genève
2010 Raymond Weil Photography Prize

Collections
Photo Elysée, Switzerland
MUDAC, Switzerland
Musée d’art de Pully, Switzerland
Hochschule de Künste Bern, Switzerland
Roche AG, Switzerland
Retraites Populaires Lausanne, Switzerland
Swiss Ambassy, Beijing, China
Fond des arts plastiques de la ville de Lausanne, Switzerland
Private collections

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