THE NEW PRODUCTS OF THE LAND: CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE TEST OF THE RURAL  

This year's symposium was conceived by Benoît Antille, assistant professor and researcher at the École de design et Haute école d'art du Valais (EDHEA) in Sierre.   

Within the framework of the master symposium, we will explore different ways in which the rural territory has influenced artistic practices over the past decades –through its modes of production, resources, skills, and cultural specificities – with the aim of questioning whether the rural is not only a territory but also a critical concept that implies specific ways of thinking and acting. The five workshops will take place in meaningful rural locations around Sierre, including the Villa Ruffieux artist-in-residency program, the international solidarity movement Emmaüs Valais, the "stamm" of Satellite’s association, and a local brass band. All workshops will include a shared lunch as a moment for sharing, exchange and discussion. 

The rural territory has long been overshadowed by the artistic field, which used to be more attracted by cities or singular sites, such as the desert of the American west, associated with the rise of Land Art in the 1960s. As demonstrated by Marfa, in Texas, where artist Donald Judd retreated in 1992, since a few decades, however, the rural territory has moved to center stage in the art world’s attention. This shift is partly due to factors that are internal to the artistic field. As art historian Brita Polzer already highlighted in 2013, in Kunst und Dorf: Künstlerische Aktivitäten in der Provinz [Art and Village: Artistic Activity in the Province], the rural territory has become a place of choice for the development of artistic practices—a place which is critical for current urgencies such as the climate crisis, food production, etc.   

But this shift also stems from external factors. The rural, indeed, has moved to the center stage of cultural policies that seek to boost the attractiveness and competitiveness of this territory through the means of contemporary art. Therefore, an increasing number of art institutions, festivals, artists-in-residency programs and funding schemes are being initiated or launched in the countryside, so favoring the emergence of a new market for the artistic field, which relies on a large part of site-specific projects.   

Since 2013, EDHEA has been addressing this phenomenon through a series of research projects that informed the 2025 Master Symposium, which focuses on participatory, socially engaged and community-based practices. In this spirit, EDHEA is collaborating with local associations, communities and constituencies in Sierre, who agreed to host the five workshops. This is also why the lunch break will be integral to the workshops, as a communal meal during which further exchanges can be made between students and guests.   

As far as it concerns the organization of the workshops, the five groups will be made at the meeting point, Sierre’s Hôtel de Ville, directly after the symposium's introduction.   

Born in Switzerland, Benoit Antille graduated from the MA Program in Classical Archeology and Art History at the Fribourg University (Switzerland, 2001) and from the Curatorial Practice MA Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco (2011). He currently works as professor assistant and research at EDHEA and his PhD candidate at UVA-University of Amsterdam. Since 2013, he has been leading several research projects on the notion of projects, the project economy and the links between artistic practices, cultural policies and territorial development.

PROGRAM 

Meeting point “Salle Antoine” de la Ville de Sierre, rue du Bourg 16, Sierre 

10h15 – 10h45 Welcome and distribution in the workshops  

11h00 – 11h15 The groups walk to the different locations   

11h15 – 15h30 Workshops (lunch is included in the workshops)  

16h00 – 17h30 Getting together and farewell  

WORKSHOPS:   

1. Déborah Bron & Camille Sevez: Les mandailles  

Location: Salle de la Piscine, Château Mercier, Montée du Château 19  

We'd like to propose a workshop based on the tradition of “mandailles”, when villagers get together to crack walnuts and share discussions, knowledge and gestures. Together, we want to reactivate this collective act to create our own space for exchange: by cracking walnuts, we'll open a discussion on our artistic approach and the questions that challenge us as young artists. During this moment, we'll exchange stories, ideas, references and texts that we'll read and discuss together. This intimate, reflective encounter will bring together rurality and creation to explore what connects territories, gestures and imaginations  

Biography: As a duo of artist-mediators from the Rhône-Alpes region in France, since 2021 we have been developing projects at the crossroads of art, ruralities and the social and economic issues that emerge from it. Using both artistic and pedagogical approaches, our work aims to question collective dynamics and ways of generating new forms of collaborative thought and creation in a territory. Since 2021, we have worked in Châteauvilain (38), Sergy (01) as part of a residency at Les ateliers Bermuda, Montbard (21) as part of a residency at the Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture, and Pont-de-Cheruy (38), with the Création en Cours Residency at Les Ateliers Médicis.

2. Ioana Lupascu: Are you also from a village?  

Location: Artists-in-residency program Villa Ruffieux, Montée du Château 26 

This workshop invites participants to reflect on their personal and collective connections to rurality. We will explore how rural experiences shape our identities, memories, and practices through writing exercises, group discussions, and an audio walk. We will use the question, "Are you also from a village?" as a starting point to unpack clichés, personal histories, and shared experiences. Participants will engage with publications from Myvillages and Seasonal Neighbours, as well as sensory elements such as local teas and honey, to ground our conversation in both material and narrative connections to place.   

The workshop is facilitated by cultural worker Ioana Lupascu, a member of Seasonal Neighbours, and takes place by invitation from “Myvillages”.  

Biography: Ioana Lupascu is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Rotterdam, working at the intersection of art, architecture, and design. She holds a master’s in architecture from "Ion Mincu" University (2014) and an MA in Art Praxis from the Dutch Art Institute (2022). Her practice explores play, intimacy, social choreography, soundscapes, and urban ecology through performative installations, audio-walks, and workshops. Lupascu’s work fosters interactive and sensory experiences, challenging spatial and social norms.

3. Adam Sutherland: 'Where does it all end up? (2nd hand culture)'  

Location: Emmaüs Valais, rte. de Riddes 51, 1950 Sion +  EDHEA, rte. de la Bonne-Eau 16, 3960 Sierre (a bus waits for the group at the train station) 

The opening session will be held in a local 2nd-hand shop. It will take the form of a short talk drawing on artifacts in the shop to illustrate the history of ruralism and how it has been commodified into contemporary life. Drawing on the notions expounded in the shop, the 2nd session will see students developing motifs and symbols that intersect with their own ideas of the value of the rural and natural world. These symbols will then be translated into ‘sprig’ moulds using clay and plaster and at the end of the session the assembled ‘sprigs' will be incorporated onto a collective vessel representing the day and a notion of collective working and sharing.  

Biography: Adam Sutherland has been the director of Grizedale Arts for 25 years, for an unfashionably long time! His interest is in rural culture, its history, legacy and value and impact on our times. Grizedale Arts is an organization that started life as a sculpture park and has morphed into a social program that connects to environmental concerns and issues offering creative and diverse solutions through artists and creative practice. The organization runs a residency building and a large inn, with land, workshops, a cafe, bars and hotels. 

4. Natsuko Uchino: Colors of Lands  

 Location: “Stamm” of Satellite Association, rte des Lacs 1  

This workshop discusses the different techniques of collecting color from the land. There will be a demonstration and practice of gallo-ferric ink making. This is a chemical reaction between steel and tannin.   

Participants are welcome to bring paper, textiles and mark-making tools, such as brushes or sticks and carving tools. Tannin rich materials such as onion skins, wood bark, coffee, tea and walnuts. Also welcome to bring other materials, paraphernalia and textiles to assemble in a mutualized memory blanket. This workshop proposes gleaning as a studio practice, cartography as field work, and the occasion of collective collections for the making of a common frieze, a landscape of dialogues and documentation between traces and stains. We can also address natural techniques within the given time constraints.  

Biography: Natsuko Uchino is an interdisciplinary artist with early experience in permaculture. Her approach was shaped both by her experience of rural landscapes and lifestyle and by the affinities she has developed with artisanal production and subsistence techniques. Her work is structured by ecological issues, which play out both in the choice of materials, their nature, provenance, transformation, modes of assembly and as well in the relations between functional, decorative, sculptural and constructive forms. Natsuko Uchino's installations combine multiple sources and fields, including objects, images, performance, conviviality and living matter. They ask the questions of time, touch and use, aging and patina but also those about the permanence of gestures and the possible reversibility of materials.  

5. Eric Phillipoz: Écouter, redire, transmettre  

Location: Local Brassband, rue Notre-Dame des Marais 2   

In my artistic practice, I have often been confronted with the question of how to use the voices and histories of others. During the workshop, I will share examples and anecdotes from my own career, along with an excerpt from a performance. Through role-playing, as well as listening and storytelling exercises, we will explore questions of transmission and appropriation, while complicating the notion of "use." The workshop will be conducted in French.  

Biography: Eric Philippoz is an artist from Ayent (VS). From 2006 to 2009, he completed a bachelor’s degree in visual arts at Head-Genève, then continued his studies with a master’s degree in visual arts at the ArtEZ Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem (NL), from 2010 to 2012. Back in Valais, he set up the “Hôtel Philippoz” project, a program of artistic residencies and events located in his grandmother's former apartment in Ayent. Eric Philippoz is the recipient of several awards, including first prize in the PREMIO competition - Prix d'encouragement pour les arts de la scène - and the Prix culturel Manor Valais 2017.  His work mainly takes the form of drawings, videos, installations, performances and texts.