“Téléphérique”
Exhibition and sound installations
From 11 May to 19 August 2023
Opening on 11 May 2023 at 6.30pm
Ecomusée de l’API 25 rue du Vuache, 1201 Geneva + info
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, 10am–6pm or by appointment
The Braillard Architects Foundation is associated with this exhibition, which approaches the cable car from a sensitive, almost sensual point of view. On display are drawings by Maurice Braillard anticipating the forms that would later become the very emblem of this architect: the Salève cable car.
Presentation of the “Téléphérique” project
“Childhood wonder, technical feats — the cable car carries its history and ours. It crosses the API ecomuseum in every direction and plays with us through its surprising formats. A scenography, permanent sound installations by Ensemble Batida and Pierre Thoma created in situ, documents and unexpected objects take you on a journey!
A co-production of the Association pour le Patrimoine Industriel, the Ensemble Batida Association and the Amalthea Association.
Concerts on 11 May (opening), 13 May, 26 May, 27 May, 4 June and 5 October 2023.
The sound installations
The Télécatida is an unusual sound installation: a 9-metre-long toy cable car made of bells, metal and wood. At the foot of the pylons, miniature cows are placed as obstacles to ring the clappers of the bell-cabins travelling along the cable… The installation is as much about sound as about sight, fascinating in its perpetual motion through the seasons.
Using a crank, the public can activate the bells and become the stationmaster of this pastoral musical instrument, producing a terrifying drone. The installation is transformed by hooking and unhooking the cabins, setting the cable in motion and activating the obstacles. Designed and built by Léo Maurel and Ensemble Batida, with the logistical and financial support of the Amalthea Association and the Association pour le Patrimoine Industriel, the Télécatida presents the sounds of the bell-cabins of the Ateliers Firmann. The herd of bells has a very specific sound identity, with an assembly of 32 steel cattle bells of seven different sizes and pitches.
The Télécatida offers a mechanical metaphor of the atmosphere of the pastures, between transhumance and the “queen fights” of the Hérens cows. The latter have a highly developed sense of hierarchy and a pugnacious temperament. In spring they engage in fights; the strongest cow must prove during the summer that she deserves to be decorated and to obtain the title of queen, “une vache totale”.
Ensemble Batida is based in Geneva and was founded in 2010. Made up of four musicians – Alexandra Bellon, Jeanne Larrouturou, Viva Sanchez and Anne Briset – the group is active in the field of musical, interdisciplinary and experimental creation.
Cable cars and their cable works
To create his two sound installations – one indoors, the other outdoors – Pierre Thoma wanted to get as close as possible to the sounds made by cable cars and their invisible machinery (the Verbier cable cars of Mont-Gelé and Col des Gentianes) and those of a cable factory (the Jacob cable works in Trubschachen). It is from this sound material, transposed into his installation at the API’s Voltaire ecomuseum, that he arranges his creation specifically for the “Le Téléphérique” exhibition from 11 May to 19 August 2023, and for the concerts he will give there. Imaginary cable cars will travel through the space; oh, not always as they should. Large motors and other machines, as if from elsewhere, too.
Pierre Thoma is a composer, sound-installation artist, performer and electro-musician. Electroacoustic music and sound installations for concerts, exhibitions and public spaces. Improvisations with his self-built sampler.
Vocal performances or with loudspeakers. Instrumental compositions (chamber music, outdoor music).
Co-production and contacts
Association pour le Patrimoine Industriel (API): Franck Vacheron, Association
Ensemble Batida: www.ensemble-batida.com
Association Amalthea: www.association-amalthea.com
Pierre Thoma: www.pierrethoma.ch
The Téléphérique project is supported by the City of Geneva, the Republic and Canton of Geneva, the Loterie Romande, a private foundation in Carouge, Téléverbier, the SIG Mécénat Fund, the Ernst Göhner Foundation, the Braillard Architects Foundation, the OPI, Galerie 1 2 3, the GLCT (Groupement Local de Coopération Transfrontalière, Salève cable car) and the volunteers of the Association pour le Patrimoine Industriel.”