July 2022 Rencontrons-nous à la gare (“Let’s Meet at the Station”) is part of the inaugural theme TRAIN ZUG TRENO TREN put forward by the three museums of Plateforme 10 in Lausanne. This is the inaugural exhibition at mudac (Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts) in its new building next to the city’s train station. 

Focusing on the railway experience and the roman de gare (the pulp novel, which in French is called the “train station novel”), mudac places train culture at the centre of its show. The union of reality and fiction lies at the heart of the story told by the exhibition, which is enhanced by objects that spring from the field of design as well as contemporary artworks. Archival footage from the Swiss Federal Railway Network can be seen alongside works by Christian Boltanski, Salvador Dali, Sophie Calle, Marina Abramovic, and Studio Job. The display comes with a contemporary pulp novel, Terre-des-Fins, specially written for the exhibition. Its reading offers visitors the opportunity to become, during their visit, the character of the novel they most identify with. 

The set design is the work of the Interior Architecture Department of HEAD – Genève and welcomes visitors into a hypothetical mining town reminiscent of the one in the novel, inviting them to become travellers in their own scenario. The bricks used for this new town inside the museum will be used after the exhibition in real construction sites in Lausanne, completing the journey of the display without wasting any material in its production. Circularity and fiction ultimately merge in this new rencontre à la gare – meeting at the station. 

HEAD – Genève. Department of Interior Architecture Team mudac: mudac Deputy Director: Marco Costantini mudac Scientific collaborator: Rafaël Santianez Team HEAD: Head of Department: Dr Javier F. Contreras Deputy Head: Valentina de Luigi Project Leader: Youri Kravtchenko Assistants: Camille Bagnoud (coci studio), Manon Portera (apropa) Students: Shana Bennett and Gaïane Legendre Collaborators: Alix Servent, Karen Pisoni, Nina d’Elia, Pierre Kolb, Tomasz Niewinski