The summer Latenium

AT THE LATENIUM - ARCHEOLOGY PARK AND MUSEUM, (13 July - 6 August 2021)

Launched in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the Summer Latenium was born at a time when cultural events could only take place outdoors. Conceived as an open-air program in the Laténium’s archaeological park, it offered an opportunity to continue engaging audiences despite restrictions, while reimagining the museum through contemporary creation.

Since then, and following its second edition in 2021, the event has pursued the same ambition: to challenge, illuminate, and reinterpret both the museum and its park. Designed as a moment in which artists and audiences reappropriate the site and its collections, the Summer Latenium enriches the visitor experience and multiplies the perspectives through which archaeology can be seen.

The program featured four artistic evenings. To encourage daytime visitors to stay on into the evening, each performance was preceded by guided tours linked to the themes of the works, creating a richer dialogue between archaeology and contemporary creation.

Curation: Dimitri Meier, Damien Frei, Eléonore Varone

Events production: Marjorie Collaud

© Ismaël Abdallah and Constance Jacob

Anne Hildbrand (*1985, Lausanne)

Outdoor–Indoor Walk, 2021

Rubbing, cyanotype, and pigments on paper

Anne Hildbrand’s work records traces collected during her wanderings through the spaces of the Laténium — offices, exhibition rooms, laboratories, storage areas, and the park. Using the technique of graphite rubbings on surfaces such as the roof of a pile-dwelling house, the pond wall, the bridge, and a wattle wall, the imprints were transferred onto long sheets of paper. These recorded traces were then layered with bluish tones produced by exposing paper soaked in a photosensitive solution to sunlight. This process also revealed elements of the environment — reeds and blades of grass — which, like a palimpsest, inscribed themselves into the material.

Before visitors enter the museum’s collections, this contemporary installation in the entrance hall serves as a reminder of the fragility of what we attempt to preserve: the decomposition of matter, its accumulation in layers, and the constant transformation of traces from the past.

Joachim Ciocca (*1986, Geneva) presented Insaisissables, a striking performance blending contemporary dance and unicycle. Through this unique interplay of movement, sound, and solo wheel, Insaisissables interrogates our complex relationship to technological progress—tools that simultaneously empower and alienate us. Ciocca, a bronze medalist at the World Unicycling Championships, delivers an acrobatic and philosophical solo in which a man obsessively spins in place, an absurd metaphor for our increasingly self-contained, device-driven existence. Supported by choreographic and technical elements including advanced sound technology and acrobatic staging, this work evolves from earlier pieces like Losing Ground, where he used the unicycle and live sound to question dehumanization through objects.

Musician and percussionist Béatrice Graf (*1964, Geneva) (Swiss Music Prize winner, 2019) staged a compelling performance atop a reconstruction of an Iron Age tumulus, transforming the archaeological site into an unconventional stage. Using her signature suitcase drum kit—assembled from everyday objects—she struck powerful, improvised rhythms bursting with energy. Her presence was both arresting and intimate; the way she connects with her audience elevates her into a truly unique performer. Graf, celebrated for her versatile “one-woman orchestra” concept, often extracts rich soundscapes from simple setups—suitcase drums, a single-string guitar, homemade percussion, and even toys—creating a world of trance, folk, rock, and beyond from minimalist means.

Four of the eleven contemporary dance solos from the project Shadowpieces guided the audience along the water’s edge at the Laténium. Conceived by Geneva-based choreographer Cindy Van Acker (*1971, Geneva) and her company Greffe, Shadowpieces is an ongoing project that has unfolded since 2018 in diverse settings — from theatres and churches to museum esplanades and schoolyards. Each solo was built around the intimate relationship between the choreographer, the performer, and a piece of music chosen from a pre-assembled “phonotheque.” Every solo becomes a distinct object in itself, seeking to reveal the dancer’s unique color, energy, and expressivity, always anchored in an intense dialogue with music.

Shadowpieces © Noé Cotter

After exploring every corner of the Laténium park with his recording equipment, Vouipe — the stage name of Swiss musician Dimitri Güdemann — crafted an entirely new sound piece using environmental sounds from the site. Renowned for blending electronic modernity with organic instruments such as the didgeridoo, fujara, hang, and alphorn, Vouipe integrates samples captured during his travels to create immersive, tribal-inflected soundscapes  . His work resists cold electronic tropes, striking instead a balance that compels movement and engagement.

This ambient creation was then brought to life inside the museum. Complementing the soundscape, dancer Marion Geisler performed an original, free-form improvisation, her movements in sync with both the recorded rhythms and the setting sun. This collaboration, specially conceived for the occasion, resulted in a unique and site-responsive performance.