“Spring at MBAL” at The Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle

This spring, the MBAL opens the doors to its permanent collection and reveals its behind-the-scenes process: what challenges does its conservation present? How does it interact with contemporary creation? Attention, Collection will shed new light on its works by taking us behind the scenes of how a collection is managed.

Organized by thematic keywords, like archive labels (Abstraction, Helvetica), the exhibition highlights the management of a collection in all its complexity, sometimes ironically diverging from it by playing with traditional art history terms and introducing new classifications (Nature morte/vivante, Fe/male gaze). To explore its current resonances, three artists—Plonk et Replonk-Bébert, Ufuoma Essi, and Virginie Delannoy—will present original works interspersed throughout the exhibition, two of which were created as a direct response to pieces from the collection.

The MBAL will also be hosting the very first institutional exhibition by Swiss artist Augusta Lardy Micheli. Metaxu (les rives où vivent mes songes) showcases the Swiss mountains and landscapes of the Neuchâtel region through her evanescent, dreamlike paintings.

Photographer and visual artist Jonathan Llense, featured at the latest edition of Paris Photo, will create an original portrait of the town of Le Locle titled Par le biais, curated by Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo. His own photographic archives will blend with local stories, the town’s fountains, and busts from the museum’s collection.

Finally, the MBAL has given carte blanche to the students of the Cercle scolaire du Locle (School District of Le Locle) to imagine, through art, a better city. On the theme of bien vivre ensemble (“living together
in harmony”), their collective works will reflect a surge of creativity and shared hope.

1. Attention, collection

Drawing attention to the collection, ensuring its preservation and cultivating its contemporary relevance: this is the MBAL’s mission, its pride and its challenge. The collection was built up in 1862 by a group of enthusiasts, long before the museum was founded, and brings together some 5,000 works by Swiss and international artists from the 17th century to the present day.

The museum team unveils the behind-the-scenes of this collection and its complex management through a wide selection of objects, presented according to six keywords inspired by an imaginary archiving software, with all its limitations and mysteries.

The Helvetica label will explore Swiss identity and the images that have given rise to its symbols and stereotypes, including the bronze head of Ferdinand Hodler by Auguste de Niederhausern, the xylogravure of Monte Rosa by Félix Vallotton and the Suchard-Milka poster created by Herbert Leupin.

Évasion will bring together works that share the theme of exploring states of mind or the exaltation of the senses through acts such as contemplation, reading, or listening to music. Included will be the meditative landscape of Claire Pasch-Battié, the spring fragrance of Marguerite Sandoz-Jeanneret, and La liseuse by Albert Anker.

The keyword Nature morte/vivante will explore the liminality between a classic subject of art history and its hypothetical opposite, as seen in The Boy with Pears by Charles Edouard Félix Clement and Still Life with Apples by François Barraud.

Thus, the works of Swiss artists such as Félix Vallotton, Paul-Théophile Robert, Charles L’Eplattenier, Marguerite Sandoz-Jeanneret, and more contemporary artists like Jeanne-Odette Evard, Mai-Thu Perret, and Sandrine Pelletier will be displayed alongside other renowned names such as Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Lin Pan Yu, Suzanne Valadon, as well as Francisco de Goya, Gustave Courbet, and Henri Matisse.

“The meta-exhibition Attention, Collection allows us to lift the veil on the inner workings of a museum collection, between wonder and conundrum: a delve into the intimacy of our archives, our masterpieces, and the delicate choreography of our work! ”
—Federica Chiocchetti, Director of MBAL

at The Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle
until September 14, 2025