Sam Stourdzé

My walk around Lausanne starts on the Place du Tunnel, where I find a funny little place that has become an art centre: Curtat Tunnel. Then I cross the Place de la Riponne and stop off at the MCBA, after that up to the Mudac. I look forward to when our three museums will be brought together within the Platform, a museum hub. On that day, the canton and the city will gain an exceptional asset for the promotion of the visual arts! In the meantime, I purchase an inclusive ticket that lets me visit the three institutions. Continuing my stroll, I walk over the Pont Bessières and, as always, I stop for a while to take in the sheer spectacle of the city, its heights and its low-lying areas, the bridge without river, human prowess that extracted a metro through the bridge’s pillar. I could stay for hours to contemplate these architectural layers… Walking down the Rue Caroline, I stop off in the most contemporary of the Lausanne cafés, the Saint Pierre. I like the decoration, its design. Then off to the area below the train station, to Circuit. Not everyone has the opportunity of having an art centre in their town that has been nominated for hosting the best Swiss exhibition! It won this in 2010 with the Alan Vega exhibition. Then a drink at the Café du Simplon, where the owner, Zoran, has transformed a tiny bistro into Lausanne’s most boho-chic rendezvous spot. And a visit of the Lucy Mackintosh Gallery. I love the space, especially the way that the architects Décosterd & Rahm refurbished it. A quick detour to 1m3, where a dynamic artist collective manages an art space. I walk up the Avenue d’Ouchy, and stop in front of number 49, an old chalet with a carved façade, a survivor of the old Ouchy. People used to access the lakeshore with a funicular train. A thought for August Strinberg as well, the writer and photographer who resided time and again in the Chalet. And finally I end my wander at the Elysée Museum, to browse through the library and for one last coffee. The inescapable Jean Gilles Décosterd designed these new spaces, it has been a year and I have not yet been bored when spending time and pondering in the 12-metre library, which, as outrageous as it may seem, has four windows!