JustJess
The very end of September brought a few opportunities to explore the area a little more. Although it started raining often, there were still enough sunny days to enjoy the time outside of the house. So I did. I went out, I explored and I discovered nice locations as well as works of art.
I must also admit I started to feel a little bit homesick. Well precisely said, dogsick. I don’t miss much in Switzerland but I miss our family dog. Because that ball of fur is the answer to all the problems sometimes. Once you are used to having a dog in your life, it is very hard to live without one.
I also started missing Czech language. Not really in spoken form, because I speak with someone from home almost every day, but I miss hearing it in songs. There is a strange sense of national awareness hidden in listening to music in a mother’s tongue while you are not surrounded by it anymore. It’s something familiar and natural which embraces you and warms you from the inside. It’s like something coded in one’s DNA which automatically makes you feel home, no matter where in the world you are. But to tell you the truth, I never really realized before how beautiful Czech language in songs is, until it disappeared from my daily life. So I ended up making myself a playlist of Czech music on youtube and I am listening to it… a lot. But anyway…What a strange thing to miss.
As the end of the month was fastly approaching, so was the end of the Biennale des arts visuels in Vevey. I wrote about it in chapter 7 of my diary and I mentioned I wanna go again, because one day was not enough to see the whole event. But as the time went, I was everywhere else, but the Biennale. In the end, I only had two days left of the Festival and I really had to go. And my friend Jo was finally back from Poland, so we crashed the event together.
That saturday was raining like crazy. So, we decided to take a look at one of the indoor parts of the Festival. We headed to Musée Jenisch in Vevey which owes its creation to Fanny Jenisch (1801-1881) a widow of a senator from Hamburg. She and her husband spent many happy times together in Vevey. That’s why she decided to donate money to the town to fund a museum of art and science.
The building itself was built in a neoclassical style and was opened in 1897. Back then, the museum had an art departure as well as scientific collections. Scientific collections were later moved to Lausanne and Musée Jenisch was renovated and became home to Foundation of Oskar Kokoschka and the Canton of Vaud prints collection. Famous painter Kokoshka with his wife and lived for many years in Villeneuve, which is a nearby town. After his death in 1980, his widow chose Vevey as a city to hold her husband’s legacy.
I must say it is amazing to explore places that were also important for artists I used to learn about at school. I also studied history of art at University, but things such as the exact location where the painter lived are not something you would remember forever. Unless you are working in a field, ofcourse. So being here, feels like studying again. I vaguely remembered that Kokoschka had some connections to Prague but I didn’t remember that his wife was from there. Also another famous artist, Gustave Courbet has his paintings in Musée Jenisch. And the funny thing is, he actually lived only one street away from my place. And this is how art becomes alive in my memory. Not at school, learning and memorizing the paintings, but in real life, walking the paths those artists were walking, seeing the sights they have seen. Thanks to the fact that I am now living here, I will be able to remember these small details. Hopefully, forever.
Alright, now enough being poetic and sentimental. Aside from the Biennale and permanent exposition, there was also another exhibition that caught our attention. Monique Jacot – Transferts et heliogrammes. Artist’s photograms and Polaroid-paper transferred images in monochromatic colors caught my attention with its poetics and aesthetics. Some of the images seemed like they were taken in a universe with different kinds of perception. Deep, dark and yet felt inviting. There is something real and something completely surreal about these works. I loved how they made me feel.
When it finally stopped raining we took a short walk around a few more exhibits of the Biennale. We were mostly fascinated by the panorama of photos taken by Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang who documented the growth of her son during the past 20 years. The first picture was taken when she was pregnant and later on, she hung the previous picture on the wall and took a new one with the previous behind her. This created the amazing effect of a window to the past and also a view on various points of relationship between mother and son.
It soon started raining again, so we didn’t have the opportunity to see the whole event. Although I went to explore Festival Images Vevey for two times, it wasn’t enough to see everything. But I don’t mind, it was a beautiful and unique opportunity anway. Because how many exhibitions really occurred this year without being closed down by restrictions? Not many. So I am happy I had a chance to see this one.
At the very end of the month I used one nice free day to go out on a walk through the area. I wanted to see more of the sights famous painters saw before me and find new sights I’ve never seen before. I had enough of walking by the lake after one month, so instead I headed up, to the hill. I noticed on a map there is a palace nearby and I wanted to take a look. Unfortunately, Château d’Hauteville was temporarily closed because of the reconstruction so I ended up circling around it and its gardens.
But sometimes, just walking without knowing a final destination can lead to beautiful places, which happened to me that day. After taking a different way home and walking for some time next to the busy road I ended up in a small heaven. A quiet road through the vineyards with an amazing view over the mountains.
I must say these moments are worth gold. Because places like this are not normally targets of tourists, so If I were here on vacation, I would never find this place. For discoveries like this I live and breathe. I spent a lot of time there. Just walking around, taking pictures and breathing. And also wondering, if Gustav Courbet or Oskar Kokoschka were there before me. Seeing the same sights I was seeing.
Only four days later, on Sunday, 27th of September I woke up to the first snow. It was only on the top of the high mountains but it brought a huge smile to my face. I love snow, I love mountains and love witnessing it all.
The first thing I did that morning? I packed my camera and went to that place with an amazing view I discovered. With all the snow on the mountain peaks, the view was again, completely different than before. Even more captivating and breathtaking.
So that was my end of September 2020. I was in Switzerland for something over a month, my eyes were still wide opened and the views of this place were printing themselves to my very soul. I was just wondering what the next five months will be like. I couldn’t wait to find out.
