Stranded

An invitation by Virginie Rebetez
for the exhibition Vous trouverez mon corps au petit port 
at Forma Art Galerie, Lausanne, CH

30 October – 28 November 2020

The exhibition takes as a starting point the suicide of Virginie’s great-uncle, Bernard Rebetez, then 80 years old.
On the night of 13th of June 2010, Bernard took his life in the lake of Bienne (CH), leaving his clothes carefully folded on the beach.
Marie Ilse Bourlanges’ installation plays out a cathartic act of ‘letting go’ of this unresolved event:
a 6m hand-knitted piece based on Bernard Rebetez’ sweater slowly unwinds around a stainless steel machine. 

“One string of yarn is pulled continuously and winded back on a rotating shaft.
Clockwise, time elastic as twisted flax, forward goes backwards.”

Transient installation 
wool, hand-knitting – 600 x 80 cm ­
sculptural machine, stainless steel, aluminium, motor – 95h x 30w x 60L cm 
&
4 x A3 pencil drawings
4 punch-card translation of the pattern of Bernard Rebetez' sweater

The work is accompanied by an artistic essay
published February 2021 in Simulacrum Myths (see full text here)