Madame l’Ambassadeur first meets Pauline Beaudemont in Zurich-Altstetten in 2019, as part of the artist-in-residence program Gleis 70.
Since June 16, the French artist is now a guest of the message salon embassy, living and working at the 25hours Hotel on Langstrasse. With her is a sourdough mother who could not stay behind in Paris alone. The living organism needs care and must be regularly fed with flour and water.
Born and raised in Paris, Pauline Beaudemont’s artistic path is closely linked to Switzerland; she studied photography at Ecal in Lausanne, then art at HEAD in Geneva, graduating with a master’s degree in 2013.
Her surrealist, feminist-rebellious-poetic installations, drawings, sculptures, texts and objects hover between states, in dream and fantasy, unmistakable are the influences of her artistic idol Meret Oppenheim. The artist is also involved in the art community, in Paris she runs the artist-run space Artemis Fontana, which she founded.
During her stay, Pauline Beaudemont cultivates and reactivates her network, she visits friends in their studios or homes in Zurich with an analog compact camera, she roams through the neighbourhoods on foot or by bike, relaxes at the Letten river pool or in the Frauenbadi. Meanwhile, the sourdough mother rests in the cool minibar in her hotel room and continues to ferment.
The moments of relaxation, of doing nothing and drifting away, of rest and sleep are moments of happiness for the artist, a state of being at rest in itself.
The photo series “Temps Calmes”, created in Zurich, shows people at rest, resting and relaxing. The black-and-white photographs portray friends, but the images also touch on a universal longing for precisely this state of happiness, which wants nothing and needs nothing, remains entirely with oneself and thus creates a subversive moment of “unproductivity,” disengaging from activity and accessibility, indulging one’s thoughts and gazing into the clouds.
At the end of Pauline Beaudemont’s residency, message salon embassy publishes the images of the series “Temps Calmes” as a birthday calendar. Throughout the year, month after month, the agenda reminds relaxation and loved ones. To use the calendar write the birthdays of friends or family members.
For the opening of the calendar, Pauline Beaudemont will serve homemade focaccia, made from the sourdough she brought.
The calendar “Temps Calmes” will appear in a limited edition of 70 copies.
With Alban Schelbert, Pauline Beaudemont, Adam Cruces, Louisa Gagliardi, Manuela Libertad Morales Délano, Charles Benjamin, Thomas Moor, Esther Eppstein, Athene Galiciadis, Meret Oppenheim, Clifford E. Bruckmann and a happy domestic pig at Uetliberg.
Calendar Vernissage Saturday 2. July, 5 p.m.
with sourdough focaccia
message salon embassy Réception
Köchlistrasse 5, 8004 Zürich
With the kind support of Stadt Zürich Kultur and 25hours Hotel Langstrasse Zürich