Agenda

On the occasion of the new album of Asterix, The daughter of Vercingetorix (part 38, published by Editions Casterman under the title ‘La fille de Vercingétorix’) the archaeological site and the Roman museum in Avenches show a series of original slides from previous albums. Special attention is also paid to the Album’ The Helvetians’. Asterix was created in 1948 by Jacques Martin (1921-2010) and continued by others. The Romans commissioned Asterix on a peace mission on the territory of the warlike Helvetians. However, it was not made easy for Asterix and the Romans. The album is almost a documentary addition to what would later become Switzerland, including the clichés. The exhibition gives an overview of this history and archaeology.

The French artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was also a great sculptor. The exhibition examines his sculptural work through the prism of the creative process and transformation and focuses on the artistic method Matisse brought to bear in almost all his principal sculptures: starting out from a seemingly naturalistic approach, his figures progressed through increasing degrees of abstraction that culminated in radical stylization. As if by metamorphosis, his bronzes are transformed from a natural to an abstract form. There are parallels with this process in his paintings and drawings, and the exhibition explores the relationship between them for the first time. More than 70 works from all over the world, accompanied by reproductions of historical photographs, films and music, offer a vivid presentation of Matisseʼs artistic method. Various sources of his inspiration – nude photographs, originals from African art and Antiquity –complete the presentation.

The exhibition presents the life of Carthusians through paintings by Augustin Pasquier (1967) and tells the story of an unknown world with surprising encounters. This mysterious universe of the Order of Carthusians invites us to reflect on our way of life, beliefs and relationship with the world around us. In the modern world, this voyage of discovery offers a moment of reflection, research and a new perspective, and the paintings depict this world.