Brooklyn-based lettering artist Alex Trochut unveiled the new 1931 Alphabet specially created for Jaeger-LeCoultre. Celebrated for the way that he harnesses the visual potential of language to redefine typography, Alex turned to Art Deco as his stylistic springboard for the new lettering. “It’s a real pleasure to collaborate with Jaeger-LeCoultre on this project and reveal the new 1931 alphabet in the setting of the Reverso 1931 Café”, said Alex.

During the evening, a DJ set was provided by 5-time Grammy winning, Oscar winning, director, author and musician Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the drummer and band leader for The Roots who serve as the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Also among the guests was New York-based artist Michael Murphy, pioneer of the perceptual art movement. In 2021, marking the 90th anniversary of the Reverso, he created the installation Space Time, which transports its viewers through the three physical dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time. Both artists are collaborating with Jaeger-LeCoultre under the aegis of its Made of Makers programme – an ongoing series of collaborations with artists, designers and craftsmen from disciplines outside watchmaking, which explores and extends the dialogue that exists between horology and art.

The Reverso 1931 Café offers a collection of pastries specially designed by the Paris-based chef Nina Métayer – also an alumnus of Made of Makers – to echo the Art Deco aesthetic of the interior design, and featuring flavours from Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux, the home of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The Reverso 1931 Café will be open at 729 Madison Avenue until Tuesday 22 November, then will become nomadic throughout the city, making appearances in Soho and Bryant Park between November 25^th and December 2^nd.

Through ‘Made of Makers’ – a series of collaborations with artists, designers and craftsmen from disciplines outside watchmaking – Jaeger-LeCoultre is exploring and extending the dialogue that exists between horology and art. Honouring the core principles that define the Manufacture, La Grande Maison is choosing partnerships with leading creators who share its fundamental values of creativity, expertise and precision. The collaborations focus on world-class practitioners whose work explores new forms of expression through different and often unexpected materials and media.

A native of Barcelona and based in New York for the past decade, Alex Trochut has become celebrated for his experimental approach to typography. Like the artisans who construct watch movements and those who decorate the dials and cases, Alex creates emotionally resonant work that combines deep complexity with apparent simplicity. He harnesses the visual potential of language, pushing letters and words to new limits so that seeing and reading become the same action; text and image become a single, unified expression.

For Jaeger-LeCoultre, Alex has created a meaningful representation of La Grande Maison’s values through a new and boldly contemporary alphabet style, the 1931 Alphabet. As a stylistic springboard, he turned to Art Deco – a style that remains very evident to this day in the visual landscape of his adopted home, New York, and one of great importance to Jaeger-LeCoultre as the origin of the Reverso. More than simply a style, Art Deco expressed the extraordinary spirit of modernity that swept the world in the 1920s and ’30s – progressive, optimistic and forward thinking, with a fascination for technology, and tremendous creative energy – values that will always remain relevant for the Manufacture.

 “We are delighted to work with Alex Trochut,” says Catherine Rénier, Chief Executive Officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre. “His creative work is avant-garde and like our Maison, he uses his heritage as a foundation, harnessing that legacy in order to express the present and future in new creative ways.”

The new 1931 Alphabet that Alex has created for Jaeger-LeCoultre is a strongly modern addition to the Maison’s visual identity. In a sharp and contemporary take on Art Deco, each letter has a boldly sculptural quality and strong sense of visual depth, while also conveying a sense of dynamism and movement. It is equally expressive in both two-dimensional form and as three-dimensional objects.

Alex sees a natural affinity between his work and that of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s watchmakers and artistic craftsmen: “I think craft and technical skills are at the heart of both typography and watchmaking,” he says. “Letters are a mix of emotional and rational decisions, with a big internal logic that ties all the decisions into one alphabet or lettering form, like a puzzle. While I consider watchmaking to be another level of complexity, both disciplines embody a devotion to the little things, which need to work in harmony inside a system.

Immediately engaging on both a visual and emotional level, Alex’s work has redefined traditional ideas of what typography can be. “Letter design is the non-verbal communication of the written medium,” he says. He attributes his special connection with typography to his grandfather Joan Trochut, who invented a revolutionary modular typographic and ornament system in the 1940s and is recognised as a major contributor to the history of typography.

Destined to become an additional signature of La Grande Maison, the 1931 Alphabet will be offered as a new style of personalisation for engraving on a Reverso case-back and will be seen in a wide variety of other initiatives in the future.

Over the years, Jaeger-LeCoultre has been expanding its creative and cultural universe through a series of art commissions, as well as collaborations with world-class practitioners of crafts from outside the world of watchmaking, thus enlarging the dialogue that exists between horology and art. In keeping with La Grande Maison’s great legacy of innovation in watchmaking, these collaborations focus on artists whose work explores unexpected forms of expression.

In his work, Guillaume Marmin employs light, sound and movement in complex and evocative relationships that redefine traditional ideas of sculpture, space and time. It evokes the beauty of the imperceptible and the laws of physics, mingling sound and light to create a new world of images and narrations, and transporting the viewer to another plane, raising profound questions and inviting contemplation and introspection. Its deepest fascination lies in this almost transcendental effect on the viewer.

 As the artist has said of his work: “I try to carry out an approach that is both conceptual and technical at the same time. I am always looking for new tools to experiment with, the times we live in are particularly conducive to this. When we work around light, we are always at the crossroads of scientific, artistic but also philosophical, even mystical questions. To a certain extent, I think my work is a continuation of the research begun by artists like Victor Vasarely or François Morellet since the 1950s. With contemporary tools, I am interested in abstract forms, movement or still in the light. There is also this same desire to take the works out of the galleries, to invest the public space and to find new distribution networks.”

While using technologically advanced tools and digital media, Guillaume Marmin’s work is always grounded in expressions of reality. Through subjects such as Earth, architecture, the paradigms of physics – and in this new commission for Jaeger-LeCoultre, astronomical phenomena – he illustrates the ambivalence of the present day in its relationship between nature and technology.

 “We are delighted to be working with Guillaume,” says Catherine Rénier, Chief Executive Officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre. “The way his work sparks the imagination and creates a sense of awe and wonder captures perfectly the feeling we get when we look at the night sky and contemplate the movements of the stars and planets. In this sense, as well as the elegance and underlying complexity of his systems, we see an exact parallel with watchmaking. As it explores the very meaning of time, Passengers: Through Time is an outstanding expression of our Stellar Odyssey theme this year.”

Passengers: Through Time

In partnership with Jaeger-LeCoultre, Guillaume Marmin has created an entirely new chapter for his acclaimed installation, Passengers. This second chapter, Passengers: Through Time, focuses on celestial and astronomical observation, offering its visitors – or ‘passengers’ – an exploration of the links between time, space and light, as described by the theory of relativity.

“The challenge of this project is to make perceptible the relationship between the observation of the sky and the measurement of time,” says Guillaume Marmin “From exchanges with astronomers and watchmakers, I imagined an art installation capable of transcribing the links that unite time and space. Its visual and sound content is constantly renewed thanks to a program established according to the geographical coordinates of each exhibition venue, the solar and lunar calendars, and the timetables. Through a kinetic device composed of games of reflections, the installation can be perceived as a spatio-temporal excursion in which we would be the protagonists. »

The intense planning phase of Passengers: Through Time included a deep consultation between the artist and the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble, which enabled him to identify and model the relationship between time and the cosmos in the light of contemporary knowledge. Employing generative programming to transcribe the data he collected during this phase, he has created an immersive and inspiring environment that enables us to momentarily approach the beauty of the unseen and the mathematical foundation of reality.

Through a kinetic device contained within a walk-through capsule and made up of visual and sound movements, infinite reflections and dizzying perspectives, the installation takes visitors on a stellar excursion in which they are the protagonists. In the passengers’ minds, this complex and evocative interplay of light, sound and movement captures the vastness of the cosmos, inviting reflection on the fundamental question of what time really is.

As Passengers: Through Time will travel to various global destinations as an integral part of the Stellar Odyssey Exhibition, its content will be perpetually modified in alignment with the solar calendar and the geographical coordinates of each exhibition site, thus expressing celestial phenomena in real time and place.

ABOUT GUILLAUME MARMIN

Born in France, Guillaume Marmin trained at the University of Lyon II, then specialised in in film, audio-visual media and digital media at ARFIS École. His work, connected from the beginning to the music scene and performing arts, is part of a revival of visual creation by overcoming traditional forms of storytelling and traditional performing media. Influenced by experimental filmmakers, Guillaume Marmin is looking for a new synaesthetic alphabet, a shared language between images and sounds, rhythms, contrast and sleek moving figures.

To develop this new language, Marmin’s work includes mapping on 3D sculptures and buildings, projection on photography and screen printing, bodies in motion and smoke. His immersive works in public spaces involve collaborations between architects, musicians and lighting designers, and give body to the intangible, making us momentarily approach the beauty of the unseen and the mathematical foundation of reality. Despite the use of technologically advanced tools and the intervention of digital media, Guillaume Marmin’s work is always grounded in expressions of reality. Whether his subject is Earth (Around the Island), climatic phenomena (Après-nous le Déluge), architecture (Raster) or the history of paradigms in physics (Timée), he illustrates the ambivalence of the present day in its relationship between nature and technology.

ABOUT THE STELLAR ODYSSEY

In 2022 Jaeger-LeCoultre pays homage to the astronomical phenomena that lie at the very origin of how mankind measures time. Since the earliest days of the Manufacture, astronomical functions have played a major role in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s portfolio of complicated timepieces ­– ranging from simple forms of moon phase display to highly complex perpetual calendars, equation of time, sky charts, and the draconic and anomalistic lunar cycles. Mastering all three measures of time – solar, lunar and sidereal – the watchmakers of La Grande Maison have perpetually innovated to create the most advanced and precise mechanisms that represent or even predict celestial phenomena. This year, Jaeger-LeCoultre embarks on a Stellar Odyssey with an immersive exhibition and a series of themed events that will embrace inspirational collaborations with a visual artist and a mixologist, and a fascinating programme of celestially-themed Discovery Workshops at Atelier d’Antoine. The Stellar Odyssey is an invitation to discover how the mysteries of the cosmos are translated into micro-mechanical wonders for the wrist.

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Paying homage to the celestial origins of timekeeping, Matthias has drawn inspiration from the wonders of the night sky, the intricacies of astronomical watchmaking and the natural bounty of the Vallée de Joux, to create a menu of soft cocktails that Jaeger-LeCoultre will offer to guests throughout the year.

For Jaeger-LeCoultre, Matthias is a natural choice of partner due to their shared spirit of inventiveness driven by research and experimentation, and their similar approach to their crafts – where a successful outcome requires an adroit balance of technical expertise, artistic flair and rigorous attention to detail. Based in Paris and renowned for his avant-garde approach, Matthias is a leader among the new generation of mixologists, blending the skills of chef de cuisine, perfumer and visual artist; with exceptional imagination and great finesse, he elevates mixology to an art form that at times seems close to alchemy. Working with temperature, texture, colour and form, as well as scents and flavours, he masters the art of layering to bring out subtle nuances and create perfect, often unexpected, and sometimes provocative harmonies. These remarkable compositions go far beyond the exceptional flavours, capturing and teasing many senses at once – sight, touch, smell, and particularly taste.

To begin the new collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre, Matthias spent time at the home of the Manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, absorbing the unique universe of savoir-faire and natural beauty. Wandering through the fields and forests he explored the local scents and flavours, and within the Manufacture he discovered the intricacy and beauty of celestial watchmaking.

From this starting-point, given creative carte blanche by Jaeger-LeCoultre, he has crafted eight exceptional soft cocktails, with evocative names such as Moon Elixir, Sun Infinity, Valley of Wonders and Earth Attraction. Delicious and intriguing, these highly original concoctions blend familiar ingredients with various herbs and fruit that grow wild in the valley, including unexpected flavours such as meadowsweet, gentian root, juniper berries, pine buds and sweet woodruff – as well as local elderflowers, cranberries and honey. For these visually captivating and highly imaginative creations, Matthias took inspiration from the colours, temperatures and forms of the heavenly bodies, adding final decorative flourishes inspired by the artistic crafts that he encountered in the Métiers Rares atelier of the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre.

“My time in the Vallée de Joux was truly inspiring,” says Matthias. “At the Manufacture I discovered watches that I never imagined possible – like microcosms of the universe. Seeing the planets and stars captured on such a tiny scale and designed with such artistry was thrilling. Then, discovering those amazing plants and herbs out in the wild, I couldn’t wait to get back to my laboratory and start working on these special creations.”

Jaeger-LeCoultre will unveil Matthias Giroud’s stellar creations at Watches & Wonders in Geneva in March, within a specially designed space called the Stellar Atelier – named as a reminder of the exceptional level of craftsmanship embodied in these splendid concoctions. After the unveiling in Geneva, Jaeger-LeCoultre will offer the same sublime tasting experience to its guests around the world – evoking the splendour of our universe and taking them on a sensory journey to the Vallée de Joux.

ABOUT MATTHIAS GIROUD

A mixologist of worldwide renown, Matthias Giroud was born in the French West Indies and started his career in 1997, aged 18, at the famous Bar Fly, Paris. In 2008 he was appointed worldwide executive bar chef development for Buddha Bar Group and, in 2009, became the first French executive bar chef to be named within the World’s 50 Best Bars ranking with Buddha Bar Paris. Co-author of the cocktail dictionary “La Petite Bibliothèque des Cocktails” by Larousse, he participated in the World Cuisine Summit in 2015 and 2019, alongside some of the world’s greatest chefs and in 2016 contributed his talent to Mistura Qaray, South America’s largest culinary event. Today, Matthias Giroud, together with his partner, runs the workshop L’Alchimiste, in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, dedicated to creating unique mixology and gastronomy experiences.

ABOUT THE STELLAR ODYSSEY

In 2022 Jaeger-LeCoultre pays homage to the astronomical phenomena that lie at the very origin of how mankind measures time. Since the earliest days of the Manufacture, astronomical functions have played a major role in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s portfolio of complicated timepieces ­– ranging from simple forms of moon phase display to highly complex perpetual calendars, equation of time, sky charts, and the draconic and anomalistic lunar cycles. Mastering all three measures of time – solar, lunar and sidereal – the watchmakers of La Grande Maison have perpetually innovated to create the most advanced and precise mechanisms that represent or even predict celestial phenomena. This year, Jaeger-LeCoultre embarks on a Stellar Odyssey with an immersive exhibition and a series of themed events that will embrace inspirational collaborations with a visual artist and a mixologist, and a fascinating programme of celestially-themed Discovery Workshops at Atelier d’Antoine. The Stellar Odyssey is an invitation to discover how the mysteries of the cosmos are translated into micro-mechanical wonders for the wrist.

An Homage to Art Deco

Born in the 1920s, Art Deco style was distinguished by a streamlined geometry that rejected traditional ornamentation and perfectly captured the spirit of modernity and progress that defined its time. Created in 1931 and infused with this same spirit, the Reverso was a radical departure from the norms of traditional watch design. Its ingenious functionality and highly distinctive aesthetic epitomised the progressive values that had transformed every area of design, from architecture, automobiles and graphic art, to furniture, films and fashion.

As a quintessential expression of Art Deco style, 1931 Café will evoke the elegant interior of a 1930s ocean liner and the glamour of a film set. Using a black-and-white palette and infused with a warm and flattering light, the design incorporates signature Art Deco materials – chrome, velvet, glass and lacquered wood – and features a marble floor with an inlaid geometric pattern typical of the era. Every detail has been custom-designed, from the frosted-glass chandelier dominating the centre of the room, to the chairs featuring three metal bands that echo the three gadroons on a Reverso case.

A Unique Collaboration with Chef Nina Métayer

Completing the design, a special collection of cakes and pastries has been created by Nina Métayer. Twice named Pastry Chef of the Year, the young Paris-based chef is celebrated for her originality, artistry and exceptional flavours. For 1931 Café, Chef Métayer has designed these sweet treats not only to echo the Art Deco aesthetic of the interior design but also to take guests on a journey to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s home in the Vallée de Joux. By using flavours from the Valley, such as mountain berries, nuts and honey – and, of course, Swiss chocolate – she is inviting guests to experience the world through different flavours, as well as to enjoy pastry that has been elevated to a finely handcrafted art form. Among the pieces created exclusively for 1931 Café are a delightful surprise that alludes to the snowy landscape of the Jura in winter while hiding a burst of summer fruit in its centre, and an elegant, rectangular confection of hazelnuts and chocolate that pays direct tribute to Art Deco style.

“What appealed to me greatly about this collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre was the idea of bringing together two very different expressions of craftsmanship in one project,” says Nina Métayer. “The pastry chef and the watchmaker share the same deep values and our gestures are driven by the same desire: not to create for ourselves but to excel for the pleasure of the recipient.”

From Paris to Shanghai – a Story of Style

The two cities chosen as locations for 1931 Café played significant roles in the story of Art Deco. Paris was its birthplace, with prototypical elements of the new style first appearing in the city’s architecture and applied arts in the 1920s. The defining moment came in 1925, when the French capital hosted the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. This was the catalyst for the global flowering of a style that remained dominant throughout the 1930s – although the term Art Deco, derived from the exhibition’s name, was coined by art historians only in the late 1960s.

In the history of Shanghai, Art Deco also has a unique place. Blending East and West, the distinctive ‘Chinese Art Deco’ style blossomed during the 1930s, as the city became a social, cultural and economic hub of East Asia. This heritage makes it especially fitting to inaugurate the 1931 Café in Shanghai, offering its residents and visitors the opportunity to experience the aesthetic and cultural world that gave birth to the Reverso design.

Opening from 13th June until 15th August, the 1931 Café will be located at K11, the art and fashion hub in the centre of Shanghai. In the autumn, as 1931 Café, it will be recreated in a new location in the heart of Paris.

The installation, titled Spacetime, further expands the cultural and creative universe of the Manufacture by exploring the relationship between the three physical dimensions of space, and the fourth dimension of time. Following its debut in China at Watches & Wonders Shanghai on April 14^th, Spacetime will be exhibited in key cities around the world over the course of the year.

THE ANAMORPHOSIS

Michael Murphy’s main body of work emphasises perspective: his installations require the viewer to change position in order to fully appreciate them. Fusing classical art-making techniques with digital processes and manual skills, he has invented an entirely new formula for rendering two-dimensional images as suspended, three-dimensional mobiles. These anamorphic installations comprise a multitude of objects hanging at various heights and distances. Depending on the viewer’s line of sight, they appear to change form: from a seemingly random and chaotic jumble of shapes they coalesce into a highly organised and recognisable image. Thus, the viewer experiences a perceptual shift, breaking down the barrier between the art medium itself and the subjective experience.

“We are delighted to be collaborating with Michael Murphy. His artistic installation requires extreme precision, a value that we share at Jaeger-LeCoultre. Our watchmakers throw their heart and soul into every ingenious sketch, every oscillation of the balance wheel, every escapement wheel - always pushing the boundaries of precision." says Catherine Rénier, Chief Executive Officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

For this new work, the Maison has collaborated with an artist whose work is often based on images of instantly recognisable cultural icons. “The Reverso has this iconic graphic identity and that's the type of content that I often work with,” says Michael Murphy.

The timepiece chosen to be represented through Spacetime is the newly released Reverso Tribute Nonantième, which expresses the time in an entirely different manner on each of its faces. The artist immediately saw a parallel between this new Reverso and his anamorphic works, many of which have two distinct sides, showing two entirely different images when viewed from different positions.

“My Reverso design explodes into an array of parts that tell a story about the watch and how it works,” explains Murphy. “I dissected it into all of its working components and composed them in a way that creates two different photographic illusions, one renders the front of the watch and one the reverse.”

The shape of each of the artwork’s 69 components resembles a familiar part of a watch. However, each is photo-printed with different fragments of movement and dial components. These parts appear exactly as in the watch only when they are lined up perfectly, as the viewer walks around the installation.

PARALLELS WITH WATCHMAKING

Beyond the obvious connection to the Reverso, Murphy’s work has many parallels with watchmaking, especially the need for extreme precision. “We create these artworks that are made of a lot of suspended objects that have to line up with one another in three dimensions and we deal with just one millimetre tolerance,” says the artist. “For us, working on a piece more than 12 feet [3.6m] tall, one millimetre adds a real level of complexity. The precision of watchmaking is something we can really relate to.”

As with the development of a new watch calibre, Murphy’s art requires an intense level of planning. It is a highly complex process involving 75 steps that must be taken in the right sequence, beginning with the mapping of exactly where in the three dimensions each component must be, in order to create an image that the viewer can understand. As in a watch movement, if one tiny element is off, the entire work is off.

“SPACETIME” INSTALLATION

The title of the new work, Spacetime, came naturally to an artist who has always been fascinated by the relationship between space and time. In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold.

“I’ve always thought of my installations as having four dimensions,” Murphy explains. “I create these artworks that are illusions of flat images that float in three dimensional space [with] the length, the width, and the height. And then the experiencing of the piece happens over time. That's the fourth dimension of the work.”

The collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre has fulfilled a desire, long held by the artist, to make a time piece – in the literal sense. “Time is an essential component to all of my work – the fourth dimension. But I have always been fascinated by the aesthetic of internal watch parts and their precision and have always wanted to make a time piece – a piece that is about time.”

For the viewer, Michael Murphy’s Spacetime captures the beauty and precision of time-keeping and time-making in a new and uniquely fascinating way.

Discover the Augmented Reality of the installation

ABOUT MICHAEL MURPHY

Michael Murphy (b. 1975) is an American artist best known for his unique style of art-making, which he calls Perceptual Art. He describes his technique, which emphasises the viewer’s perception, as “illusions of images rendered in three dimensional space”. In his early career, Murphy created commissioned works while teaching art in universities, and since 2013, he has devoted his time exclusively to creating art. Among Murphy’s most notable works are Gun Country and The Immigrant – which invite people to reflect on important social issues – his portraits of Barack Obama, and several works created for Michael Jordan and Nike. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His portfolio can be viewed online at perceptualart.com.

ABOUT THE REVERSO

In 1931, Jaeger-LeCoultre launched a timepiece that was destined to become a classic of 20th-century design: the Reverso. Created to withstand the rigours of polo matches, its sleek, Art Deco lines and unique reversible case make it one of the most immediately recognisable watches of all time. Through nine decades the Reverso has continually reinvented itself without ever compromising its identity: it has housed more than 50 different calibres, while its blank metal flip side has become a canvas for creative expression, decorated with enamel, engravings or gemstones. Today, 90 years after the Reverso was born, it continues to epitomise the spirit of modernity that inspired its creation.

In choosing to expand its creative and cultural universe through this art commission, Jaeger-LeCoultre enlarges the dialogue that exists between horology and art. In keeping with The Sound Maker theme, the Maison has chosen to collaborate with an artist whose main body of work examines and celebrates the nature of sound.

In his work, Zimoun employs simple raw materials and repurposed industrial components to create complex and evocative tapestries of sound and movement that redefine traditional ideas of sculpture, space and time. Discussing his approach, the artist explains: “I’m interested in sound as an architectonic element to create space, but also in sound which somehow inhabits a room and interacts with it. I work with three-dimensional sound structures, with spatial experiences and the exploration of sound, material and space – and perception.”

Zimoun deliberately chooses materials that are not necessarily intended just to look attractive, basing his choices on their dynamics, behaviour and resonance properties. In this sense, there are clear parallels with the way the watchmakers of Jaeger-LeCoultre work with metal, and this adds a deeper dimension to the collaboration with Zimoun. “We are delighted to work with Zimoun,” says Catherine Rénier, Chief Executive Officer of Jaeger-LeCoultre. “Like our Manufacture, he transforms raw materials with precision. His expertise and creativity with metal was a perfect fit with our artisans, who are always looking for the ideal balance between technicality and beauty.”

Like the artisans who construct chiming watch movements, Zimoun creates graceful and poetic works that combine simplicity with complexity and playfulness with elegance. In both cases, fascination lies in the immediacy of understanding the sound-making process through visible and concrete elements, while at the same time the complexity of the total system defies attempts to dissect it.

‘The Sound Maker’ Installation

“1944 prepared dc-motors, mdf panels 72 x 72 cm, metal discs Ø 8cm, 2020”

To encourage freedom of interpretation, Zimoun gives his works very technical titles that just describe the materials used – the elements that the viewer sees anyway. The work is based on small dc-motors, fine wires, MDF panels and almost 2,000 very thin metal discs. These discs are, in fact, watchmaking components obtained from the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre to serve as sound sources. Connected to the motors by wires, the discs rotate against the MDF panels in a similar way to a coin falling to the ground. This friction produces a highly complex sound structure and the movement creates a flickering surface.

The artist explains: “Since all the wires holding the metal discs are bent by hand, each is slightly different, causing the metal discs to rotate at different angles or speeds. This creates a complex individuality that affects both the visual and acoustic properties of the work. The sound becomes very complex and is in constant change in its microstructures. Similar to the sound of a river, which never sounds exactly the same again. Visually, a similar complexity arises…resulting in a kind of flickering, similar to the effect we know from water surfaces.”

In the viewer’s mind, this complex and evocative tapestry of sound and movement can be connected with natural phenomena – the sounds of nature and the reflection of sunlight on water – immersing visitors in the natural soundscape of the valley and evoking the deep connections between the watchmakers of Jaeger-LeCoultre and their surroundings.

ABOUT ZIMOUN

Zimoun (born 1977) is a Swiss self-taught artist best known for his ‘sound sculptures’, sound architectures and installation art. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in programmed systems, his emotionally engaging installations incorporate commonplace raw materials and industrial objects, articulating a tension between the orderly patterns of Modernism and the chaotic forces of life. In addition to being recognised by numerous residencies and grants, Zimoun’s work has been presented in exhibitions at prestigious international museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art MAC Santiago de Chile; Nam June Paik Art Museum Seoul; Kuandu Museum Taipei; Art Museum Reina Sofia Madrid; Ringling Museum of Art Florida; Mumbai City Museum; National Art Museum Beijing; LAC Museum Lugano; Seoul Museum of Art; Museum MIS São Paulo; Muxin Art Museum Wuzhen; Kunsthalle Bern; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Le Centquatre Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art Busan; Museum of Fine Arts MBAL; Kunstmuseum Bern; Museum Collection Lambert Avignon; among others. The artist lives and works in Bern, Switzerland.

ABOUT THE SOUND MAKER

In 2020, Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates THE SOUND MAKER, paying homage to the sounds of nature that form a backdrop to daily life in the Vallée de Joux, and to its great legacy of chiming timepieces, expressing a century and a half of accumulated expertise in fresh new ways. During the 150 years since the Manufacture developed its first minute repeater in 1870, chiming watches have been a particular forte, with 200 calibres demonstrating its mastery of all forms, from relatively simple alarms to highly complex sonneries and repeaters. In parallel, the Manufacture’s engineers and designers have patented numerous innovations that redefine the benchmark for acoustic quality and beauty.