Swiss customs and traditions
The Swiss people have always preferred to cultivate their own local traditions – and in this way give the country an enormous wealth of cultural manifestations and living traditions. Here are a few.
Urban exploration
Urban exploration, abbreviated as urbex, is a practice of visiting places built and abandoned by man, the urban explorer being commonly referred to by the neologism urbexeur. Urban exploration is defined as an “unauthorized and usually non-profit visit to abandoned or abandoned places”. It has its own principles and for some a true code of conduct aimed at preserving the premises and protecting them as much as possible, in particular by concealing the addresses in order to avoid attracting thieves or thieves.
CEVA stations
The CEVA, acronym of “Cornavin – Eaux-Vives – Annemasse”, designates a rail link between the canton of Geneva (Switzerland) and Haute-Savoie (France), put into service in December 2019. It connects Geneva (Cornavin station ) in Annemasse bypassing the city center of Geneva and constitutes the backbone of regional public transport by allowing the installation of the Léman Express.
The origins of the project date back to 1850. It was not until 1888 with the opening of the Annemasse line at Genève-Eaux-Vives, then 1949 with the opening of the Cornavin-La Praille line (marshalling yard), to see only part of the connection made. However, the project was reactivated in 2001 and the Lancy-Pont-Rouge station – commissioned on December 16, 2002 – constitutes a new terminus on the left bank for regional trains from Coppet.
The CEVA line has five intermediate stations and two terminal stations, Cenève-Cornavin and Annnemasse, spread over the entire route. Two new stations were thus built, Lancy-Bachet and Genève-Champel. These new stations, as well as Lancy-Pont Rouge, Eaux-Vives and Chêne-Bourg, which were rebuilt, were the subject of an architectural competition. The construction of these five buildings was entrusted to the winner of the competition: the French architect Jean Nouvel.
All of the five intermediate stations will have a common architectural treatment, based on the use of large “glass bricks”, available as a facade as well as a floor or a roof, in order to allow the maximum amount of light into the spaces. mostly underground stations. The initial project provided for the creation of 1500 of these “bricks” to dress the stations, but it was planed to save money, the creation of these bricks, estimated at 45 million francs would have represented a quarter of the budgetary risks. totals. Thus, the number of bricks is reduced by a third, and they are replaced by other, less expensive materials.
CEVA stations by night
Alpe Mergozzo – the Mergozzo pasture
The Mergozzo mountain pasture is located in the municipality of Avegno-Gordevio in Vallemaggia, Ticino (Switzerland). Located at an altitude of 1,400 meters, it welcomes over sixty goats every summer, owned by the Maddalena family. Inscriptions on “rustici” (typical granite houses) show that this mountain pasture was already occupied in the 17th century, a time when conditions must have been very harsh. More recently, several of these old stone huts have been carefully renovated in a spirit of heritage conservation and offer all modern comforts to shepherds who stay on the mountain pastures in summer.
The Maddalena make delicious cheeses there: tommes and camemberts, or tasty “buscíon” (fresh goat’s cheese corks), not to mention the succulent mascarpa (goat ricotta cooked over a wood fire. ). These are then sold either directly to the mountain pasture – to seasoned hikers who are not afraid of the 1000 meters of steep climb! – or in a more easily accessible self-service, located in the valley, in the village of Gordevio.
Life on the alp follows an unchanging rhythm. In the evening, the goats head for the mountains to feed, sometimes as far as Alp Pizzit at 1,713 meters. In the early morning, some descend on their own to the pastures for milking, but others remain lounging in the heights. The shepherds must then climb the peaks at dawn to look for them, taking advantage of bringing dead wood with them to make the fire. After milking, the cheese is made: the milk is heated over a wood fire before draining and molding. Goats produce milk over a period of about a hundred days. In the fall, they return on their own to the valley to the village of Gordevio for wintering.
Shapes and colors
The iris
Iris is a genus of rhizomatous or bulbous perennial plants in the Iridaceae family. The genus Iris contains 210 species and countless horticultural varieties. Horticultural hybrid Irises are often found in gardens, mistakenly called Germanic Irises. Like many flowering plants, the first irises appeared in the late Cretaceous (Campanian) around 80 million years ago in an area that is now Antarctica. Irises are now found throughout the northern hemisphere, in Europe as well as in Asia, North Africa and North America. The garden of the irises of the castle of Vuillerens, near Morges, offers magnificent walks.
The coulor pencils
For this series I wanted to represent the primary, secondary and complementary colors as well as the Itten chromatic circle. There are several qualifications, possible definitions of colors depending on the area covered, painting, printing, screens. Additive synthesis or subtractive synthesis among others define different primary colors. The opposition of greens and reds together with those between yellows and blues and between black and white forms the basis of human color perception, formed from the ganglion and bipolar nerve cells in the eye. These six colors are the elemental colors of Hering. I worked particularly on the depth of field in order to get, I hope, original photos.