VICE VERSA

Carried by the glaciers, three enormous erratic blocks of Mont-Blanc, portions of rock, are placed in the Gardens of Europe, a natural presence in the heart of the city. And if humans work to carve a maxim on their sides, it is to remind us that the world is “one and indivisible”, binding us all in the same destiny.
The worrying future of glaciers, giants which offer us the main resource of fresh water, is a major question in the work of the visual artist, graphic designer and photographer Laurence Piaget-Dubuis, and the architect and urban planner Hervé Savioz. Climate change is a warning signal. The message engraved by the sculptor Pat Méo on the blocks, great witnesses to the history of the glaciers, resonates like a call for help. The white gold of the Alps must not turn into a desert. Returning to the awareness of belonging to a whole is essential to envision a common, shared, equitable future.

Born in 1971 in Switzerland, eco-artist, graphic designer and photographer, Laurence Piaget-Dubuis uses art to raise awareness of contemporary issues in the relationship between man and his environment. She is notably the author of several artistic projects linked to climate change in the Alpine region. His work is exhibited at the international level (United Nations (UN) conference on water in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in 2003, 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris on climate in 2015, Swiss pavilion of the World Expo in Astana, Kazakhstan in 2017).

Born in 1975 in Switzerland, architect and urban planner in the development of public spaces, Hervé Savioz graduated from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE). After nearly fifteen years of activity as an independent architect, he became involved with a public authority in French-speaking Switzerland. In his daily life as an urban planner, he acts upstream of the architect’s work to design and imagine living spaces within a framework of sustainable and resilient development.

Born in 1970 in France, the sculptor Pat Méo has been working for more than twenty years with stone and marble, which he combines with wood and other materials. His work is part of private collections and his monumental installations and sculptures are regularly exhibited.