![Accrochage [Vaud 2009] &<br> Jean Crotti, Prix du Jury 2008](https://www.mcba.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Affiche.DEF_2009-2304x3259.jpg)
Accrochage [Vaud 2009] &
Jean Crotti, Prix du Jury 2008
For the seventh edition of its annual exhibition dedicated to the contemporary art scene in Vaud, the MCBA took over Espace Arlaud to present recent works by artists from different generations, selected through an open call by a jury of professionals.
For the 2009 edition, 215 artists from Vaud or working within the canton responded to the museum’s invitation, submitting 516 paintings, sculptures, drawings, videos, and installations for review by a jury composed of Luc Aubort (artist, Lausanne), Barbara Basting (art critic, Zurich), Kathleen Bühler (curator, Kunstmuseum Bern), Christoph Lichtin (curator, Kunstmuseum Lucerne), and Catherine Pavlovic (curator, MAMCO, Geneva).
The jury selected 56 works by 33 artists for this edition and awarded the 2009 Jury Prize to Elisabeth Llach, succeeding past laureates Robert Ireland, Bernard Voïta, Yves Mettler, David Hominal, Anne-Julie Raccoursier, and Jean Crotti.
Jean Crotti. Losing Oneself in Their Eyes. Jury Prize 2008
A room was dedicated to Jean Crotti (*1954), winner of the 2008 Jury Prize, for his exhibition Losing Oneself in Their Eyes. Awarded for his remarkable drawing work, the artist presents here a vast selection of recent large-format drawings that testify to his relentless exploration of portraiture—portraits of men or adolescents, most often drawn with colored pencils on various supports such as paper, cardboard, shopping bags, or other salvaged materials. The contrast between the raw support and the subtlety of the line, between the rough surface and the insistent softness of the gesture that captures a gaze here, an expression or a pose there, only enhances the strange and fascinating beauty of these characters who seem to offer themselves to our gaze yet remain elusive.
This work was part of a long-term investigation into the human figure and its possible representations, initiated by Jean Crotti in the early 1980s and developed decisively during the decade from 1992 to 2002, when the artist divided his time between Lausanne and Cairo. While he also explores various other techniques—painting, engraving—it is drawing that remains his preferred medium to give presence to the Other and to attempt to capture an image that continually slips away.
Supported by
