DANIELLE JACQUI: IN SWITZERLAND, AN ART BRUT CREATOR’S GRAND, NEW MONUMENT

NOW ALMOST 90 YEARS YOUNG, THE ARTIST HAS REALIZED HER MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECT EVER

by Edward M. Gómez

RENENS, SWITZERLAND — Recently, on the bright, crisp, late-autumn afternoon of November 5, 2022, a monumental expression of the sense of pure joy an artist derives from the process of creating was officially unveiled and inaugurated at La Ferme des Tilleuls, a small art center housed in a former railway-depot building in this small town located immediately to the west of Lausanne.

The tall, multicolored, ceramic-covered structure, “Le Colossal d’Art Brut ORGANuGAMME II,” is the brainchild of the French artist Danielle Jacqui, which she had been developing and elaborating since 2006.

Danielle Jacqui, “Le Colossal d’Art Brut ORGANuGAMME II,” a site-specific, mixed-media sculptural work featuring a cladding of ceramic-relief tiles, which opened at La Ferme des Tilleuls, an art center in Renens, Switzerland, on November 5, 2022. Photo for brutjournal by Edward M. Gómez

Like that elegant city built on hills and surrounded by a region of vineyards, Renens overlooks Lac Léman, with stunning views of the water and the majestic, snow-topped Alps in the near distance that are more powerful than any big-budget fantasy movie’s computer-generated special effects.

Renens is an industrial suburb of its larger neighbor. La Ferme des Tilleuls’ property lies close to a small train station and the Swiss national railway tracks along which local and high-speed regional lines pass on their way west, to Genève, and east to Lausanne and other destinations.