Hespérides III
Retour à Eden

Echoing the fourth edition of Lausanne Jardins, the Museum of Fine Arts invited visitors on a journey to paradise. Admission was free for this event, which concluded the three-part series Hespérides, inaugurated in March with an invitation to artists Michel François and Jacques Vieille, and continued in May with three days of performances.

Eden, the place of origin in the three major monotheistic religions, has never ceased to captivate the imagination. Associated with pleasure and the promise of a harmonious life, it remains the object of eternal nostalgia. The disobedience of Adam and Eve marks the beginning of the history of knowledge. However, their expulsion from the enclosed garden condemns them to mortality, wandering, and discord. Artistic reflection has accompanied society’s ongoing questioning of the possibility—or impossibility—of a return to Eden. The exhibition explored three aspects of this reflection: the (lost?) unity between nature, humans, and animals; the utopian vision of a new golden age; and the mourning of innocence.

Drawing extensively, though not exclusively, from the Museum of Fine Arts’ collection, the exhibition presented modern works by Alice Bailly, Ernest Biéler, Charles Blanc-Gatti, Maurice Denis, Charles Gleyre, Ferdinand Hodler, Alexandre Perrier, Auguste Rodin, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Louis Soutter, and Félix Vallotton, among others. These “classics” of the collection engaged in dialogue with contemporary works by André Décosterd, David Hominal, Alain Huck, Albert Oehlen, Giuseppe Penone, Eric Poitevin, Claudia Renna, Didier Rittener, Denis Savary, Stéphane Zaech, and more. This interplay highlighted how our era envisions the return to Eden, confronted with the threats to biodiversity and the haunting specter of civilization’s collapse—even the potential self-destruction of humankind.