Switzerland, day two

Wednesday I went to Lausanne! I meant to go to the Olympic Museum, but I double-checked their hours before leaving, which was a good choice, since they've been closed since January 2012 for renovations.

BUT that was actually brilliant, because instead I went to the Collection de l'Art Brut (outsider art). Jean Dubuffet was really interested in how (he believed) insanity caused creativity, and collected a ton of art made by people deemed mentally ill and often placed in asylums and the like. He later donated his collection to the city of Lausanne.

I was a little worried that this collection would be like, fetishizing the otherness of the so-called "outsider", but that was not a necessary worry to have. The panels all did a really balanced and respectful job of describing the lives of the sometimes troubled people behind the artworks. They perhaps could have done a better job historically situating things (that is, explaining how bad asylum conditions were in the forties and fifties when a lot of the artists were shut inside them, and not just citing institutionalization), but the descriptions usually did not try to glorify the art as created by mental illness. Instead, mental illness was a factor in the artist's life--the panels described the works as discrete parts of their stories, perhaps affected by their situations but not parroting Dubuffet in saying the madness caused the brilliance or anything similarly troublesome. I really respect the museum for that.

As an art history major in denial, this museum visit was pretty interesting for thinking about what constitutes the canon. I'm at least slightly versed in modern American and European art, and I had previously heard of maybe one of the artists I saw displayed yesterday. I'm not sure I like what this says about what we as a society think is great modern art. Yes, the Collection contains some outsider art that is more just a look at the intense pet projects of some very driven people (this one guy made things out of seashells? I don't even know), but a lot of it is not pet projects. It's just art by marginalized people, and therefore art that never entered the mainstream art world. That, my friends, makes one think.

This exhibit was actually really creepy and probably falls more into the pet project category. That's a doll.

After the art experience, I decided to hike up one of Lausanne's many giant hills (the whole city is hills) and go to the cathedral. Though under construction, it was a cathedral, and lots of gorgeous things therefore remained. Also it was built in the 12th century, so it would be exciting even if it were ugly.

Rose windows are my favorite.

There were a lot of statues.

The cathedral was a big contrast with the art museum, and that was quite nice. All in all, Lausanne might have been one of my favorite places in Switzerland. Less cosmopolitan than Geneva but just as pretty, it had more of a distinctive Swiss feel to it, and I'm a bit sorry I only spent a day there.

I took this picture at the top of the tower to be silly and send it to my sister, and then a lady noticed and asked if I wanted her to take my picture. Awkward times.