Alt +1000

01.09.2019
22.09.2019

In September, MBAL invites you to visit the Alt.+1000 contemporary photography festival being held in three different venues. MBAL has formed a partnership with this festival renowned for exhibitions of contemporary photography with mountain themes. The museum, through its exhibitions focusing on landscape and its representation in historical and contemporary photography, is the first of the three venues taking part in the Alt.+1000 festival. To extend this focus on the landscape, MBAL invites visitors to explore the two other sites involved in the festival: the Grand-Cachot-de- Vent farm, a superb 16th century building located in La Chaux-du-Milieu, and Lake Taillères. This photographic journey taking place in three locations will allow visitors to fully experience the landscape in the imposing natural setting of the Neuchâtel mountains, at an altitude of 1000 metres.

Previous editions

For many people, Alt.+1000 refers to the quaint village of Rossinière, where the festival has taken place from 2008 to 2015 in barns, chalets and on walking trails, always on a mountain theme.

Rossinière is indeed an amazing setting but the work exhibited was not just about beautiful images. Mainly highlighting contemporary photography, the festival questioned notions of territory and landscape through documentary and visual language. Matthieu Gafsou, Simon Norfolk, Penelope Umbrico and Edgar Martins all exhibited there.

This year, Alt.+1000 moves from the Pays d’Enhaut to the Neuchâtel mountains. As in Rossinière, the event offers art and nature lovers, as well as families, a photographic stroll through a remarkable landscape.

2019 Edition

Whether by climbing mountains, planting a cross or building a refuge or working the steep land, man has left his mark on the peaks for centuries and this footprint is at the centre of the next and fifth edition of the festival.

The exhibition held at the Grand-Cachot-de-Vent farm will be divided into 4 themes: The topography of the summits, which is synonymous with tourist getaways for some, while it is a matter of survival for others, notably migrants, will be illustrated through the first part entitled “Traverser les montagnes” (Crossing mountains). The second part of the exhibition “Occuper les montagnes” (Occupying mountains) is centred around the peaks and the use made of them, from peasants to skiers, as well as NASA’s explorations of the mountains of Mars. To follow on from the first two themes, “Déplacer les montagnes” (Moving mountains) will display the works of artists who play with the mountain images. Finally, the exhibition will end with a selection of books by Swiss photographers based on the Alps, with the theme “Observer les montagnes” (Observing mountains).

Less than 10 kilometres away from Grand-Cachot-de-Vent, Lake Taillères will host an international project created by Project Pressure, a collective of artists and scientists. At the centre of the “Siberia of Switzerland,” the exhibition will show the ultimate footprint man has left on the mountains: global warming. Since 2008, the collective has been working on documenting climate change, notably the melting glaciers, by organising expeditions around the world. Since the project was launched by Danish photographer Klaus Thymann, thousands of images have been created by leading photographers such as Simon Norfolk, Edward Burtynsky and Richard Mosse.