The old airport around 1950. It has hardly changed since then.
DR.
It is a childhood memory. No, I did not see a vulture fly that I would later have reproduced in my work, like Leonardo da Vinci according to Sigmund Freud. Stay modest! I only remember going with my mother to the old Cointrin airport, then brand new, in the mid-1950s. She was accompanying a friend who was leaving for London. Flying was rare at the time. We said goodbye in the hall. And then we left without having passed the slightest security check. It was a beautiful moment in a nice lobby.
After Lausanne and Morges…
This lobby and the corridor beyond, which today have become lethargic, have resumed service these days. The 2022 version of the very itinerant “Puces du Design” is celebrated here. They started their career at Flon Lausanne. Then there were the wooden barracks of the CFF (Federal Railways) in Morges, since replaced by hideous buildings, unfortunately constructed of concrete. Fans then went to the Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne in a sumptuous “1950s-style” hall. The same architectural taste found today in Cointrin, in a mummified T2 terminal in the state. A place where only Swiss and foreign dealers unpacked stalls displaying prices not from second-hand dealers but from antiques dealers on Thursday. So I saw one or two five-digit labels and many more four-number labels. This is on average more expensive than the products presented today before the May sales by Geneva Enchères rue de Monthoux!
The pretext photo used by “Les Puces du design”.
DR.
It must be said that these luxury markets hit the mark. Everything here wants to be from the 50s and 60s. “It’s been in fashion for twenty years and the public doesn’t seem to get tired of it,” admits a vendor. It is true! There was Art Nouveau, then Art Deco, the 1930s and 1940s. A slow but steady parade. Since the new millennium, nothing seems to move. With a bit of concern anyway. If despite everything we have continued to create (at least a little), have we still shown ourselves capable of creating what I would call “a style” since 1970? Serious question, which I felt I was left alone to ask at Cointrin. The unimaginative sores that paraded seemed to look for elements that responded to the codified language prevailing in their falsely “cool” universe. Each of the furniture or objects offered allows them to “give a signal”.
lyre shaped jukebox
Obviously, under this sign of the trivial, the best rubs shoulders with the worst. Upscale, I saw two motorbikes placed on the spinning mat that normally carried suitcases. An extraordinary lyre-shaped 1947 Wurlitzer jukebox, designed for ’78 jazz. A few Scandinavian sideboards (one of which is three meters long!) in hardwood. The Lucky Strike poster, where a lady in a veiled hat holds a cigarette between two of her gloved fingers. Spectacular grandstand for tennis referees from the 60s. It is a change from the icons that are repeated over and over again. I almost wanted to scream when I saw the black leather armchair and stool designed by Ray and Charles Eames. “And when I think my parents have thrown away theirs,” exclaims a visitor next to me, less impressed by the design than by the price displayed.
Another image taken from the fair’s website.
DR.
Indeed there are people despite the lack of advertising, at least on the street. The place (www.pucesdudesign.ch) certainly looks very good to me, but I’m still used to posters. Like then. On this Friday morning, some people are already leaving with their package under their arms, with the essential layers of bubble wrap. Young couples procrastinate. You are wrong. Good opportunities (there are all the same) do not wait. Ready. I can see Alexandre Ding looking at the fair that he is organizing from afar. For me, it’s over. I smiled when I saw the ecological containers in a corner inviting citizen classification. Admit that in an airport you had to dare! Then I took the green path, past the gates, outside. He is the one who has been telling us for a long time: “Nothing to declare”.
Practice
“Les Puces du design, Cointrin Airport, building T2. We continue to visit on Saturday April 30 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday May 1 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Le Salon du design”, which takes place at the Pavillon Sicli, will take place in 2022 on November 5 and 6.
Born in 1948, étienne dumont He did studies in Geneva that were of little use to him. Latin, Greek, correct. An unsuccessful lawyer, he branched out into journalism. Most often in the cultural sections, he worked from March 1974 to May 2013 at the “Tribune de Genève”, starting out talking about cinema. Then came the fine arts and books. Other than that, as you can see, nothing to report.
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– “Les Puces du design” returns to Cointrin
The Geneva fair refocuses on the 1950s and 1960s. It has found an ideal setting with the old airport, still in its original state.