Breath of Life – Fondation Opale, Switzerland

Fondation Opale took up the challenge of exhibiting sound. Not just any sound: the original sound from the earth. Fondation Opale is putting itself in tune with the didgeridoo, for a presentation on a totally new scale with a hundred works, including an exceptional collection of 70 instruments. In this exhibition, Fondation Opale also offers a central place to contemporary artistic expressions mixing immersive installations and video mapping, nevertheless in perfect harmony with the most ancestral vectors of the Australian Indigenous tradition.

The precious know-how of Djalu Gurruwiwi, one of the greatest yidaki players and guardian of this instrument, is presented to visitors through interviews and projections. The exhibition also offers a glimpse of Gunybi Ganambarr’s experimental creations, introducing recycled materials and innovative techniques as a contemporary interpretation of the yolŋu tradition.

The Mulka Project, a digital production studio and archive centre in Yirrkala in the north-east of Arnhem Land, has developed two installations using new media for Fondation Opale, which feature various sculptures through video mapping and thus vividly evoke the links between the sculpted works and the ancestral places and beings from which they originate.