The “Brut” drawings

The second Art Brut Biennale Architectures in Lausanne presents a range of works – some of which have never before gone on display – focused on the theme of construction.

Collection de l'Art Brut, Architectures, Benjamin Bonjour, untitled, 1982

Launched in 2013, the Art Brut Biennials continue this year with the Architectures exhibition presenting 250 drawings, paintings, sculptures and textile creations. By 51 different authors, the works on show thus testify to a very wide range of techniques, materials, dimensions and formal languages.

Hotta Tetsuaki, untitled, 1982 — **Top:** Benjamin Bonjour, Untitled, 1982, wax crayon on paper, 30,5 x 38,5 cm, detail. Collection de l'Art Brut. Photo Caroline Smyrliadis, Adn-Vdl. **Above:** Hotta Tetsuaki, Untitled, 1982, wax crayon on paper, 26,7 x 37,9 cm. Photo Caroline Smyrliadis, Adn-VdL Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne

This second edition biennial highlights architecture: it presents a range of works – some of which have never before gone on display – exclusively focused on the theme of construction. Showcased side-by-side, representations of houses, buildings and cities, together with floor plans, elevations of facades, cross-section and perspective views are invited to dialogue among themselves. Their authors have rejected all the geometric constraints and demands of convention ordinarily governing architectural drawings, diverting the laws of perspective in favor of their own, highly personal interpretations.

Magali Herrera, Otros Mundos, 1980 — Magali Herrera, *Otros Mundos*, 1980 ink on paper, 65 x 50 cm. Photo Caroline Smyrliadis, Adn-VdL. Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne

In the course of their frequently troubled life paths, many a time the authors find themselves relegated to a site that is not of their choice. The likes of, for instance, psychiatric hospital patients, prison inmates and migrants may experience their living place in unfamiliar or even hostile terms. Some feel a need to reclaim their surroundings by projecting on paper their personal ideal of an architectural project, seeking to arrange,
conceive and illustrate a fantasy world of their own. Each architectural contribution thus expresses either its author's version of reality or else his/her manner of representing a utopian world.

André Carré, Untitled, 1952, ink on paper, 14,7 x 22 cm. Photo Caroline Smyrliadis, Adn-VdL. Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne

Yuji Tsuji draws his city as seen from the sky: the results are staggeringly precise, if devoid of any human figures; Gregory Blackstock comes up with a whole range of forts, huts and skyscrapers to complete his encyclopedically compiled universe; Willem van Genk reinterprets his views of various capital cities that he either has visited himself or studied in the many tourist guidebooks he collects. Meanwhile, Magali Herrera invites us to visit a fantasy world springing forth from the pages of the science fiction novels she secretly wrote in Uruguay during the 1970s.

Paul End, Un couple et des lions, vues panoramiques — Paul End, *Un couple et des lions, vues panoramiques*, between 1949 and 1950 graphite and coloured pencil on wrapping paper coated with oil paint, 47,5 x 85,5 cm. Photo Caroline Smyrliadis, Adn-VdL. Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne

until 17 April 2016
Architectures
Collection de l’Art Brut
Avenue des Bergières 11, Lausanne

The “Brut” drawings

The second Art Brut Biennale Architectures in Lausanne presents a range of works – some of which have never before gone on display – focused on the theme of construction.

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