LAUSANNE.- Water is coming is a complex and immersive installation especially designed for Photo Elysée. We’re successively submerged between the immensity of the waves and the artificial space of an aquarium in which the water is steadily rising. The tension between the beauty of the living world and the anxiety caused by the deterioration of our planet is a constant theme in Maya Rochat’s work.

In this exhibition, the Swiss artist offers a holistic experience on the fringes of our reality. Inspired by Masaru Emoto’s hypothesis that the human conscience affects the structure of water, Rochat filmed images on and under the water. She then reworked them into video montages and projected and superimposed them onto images printed on canvas and wallpaper.

For several years, her work has been in various experimental media where the image becomes a mural fresco, a polarising luminous frame, a printed carpet, etc. In her artistic approach, Rochat plays on the materiality of images, the relations of scale, colours and transparency, thus altering our perception.

By merging her images with the sound work of musician Blackout, Maya Rochat plunges us into a dreamy atmosphere. She invites us to take our time, to contemplate and meditate in the heart of this multifaceted space where the living world is transformed and made sublime. Paradoxically, however, behind the apparent calm, Rochat confronts us with images, putting us face to face with visual overstimulation. In this way, the artist invites us to reflect on the future of water, and hopes to reconnect us with this precious element of which we are made.

This exhibition is supported by the Fondation Leenaards, a partner in the Résonances project, which brings together the three Plateforme 10 museums through thematic commissions for artists from the region. Water is coming resonates with the Thalassa! Thalassa! exhibition at the MCBA until January 12, 2025.

Maya Rochat (1985) is a Swiss visual artist. She uses various media such as photography, painting, video, installation and performance. After graduating from the ECAL in 2009 followed by the Head in 2012, her work has been shown by several major institutions such as the MEP and the Palais de Tokyo
in Paris as well as London’s Tate Modern.