Kunsthotel

As an organizer of festivals and concerts for more than 20 years in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, I cannot imagine the life of the Villa Pineta otherwise than to the rhythm of a few concerts, exhibitions, readings or projections. Because up there, on this hill, in front of Fusio theatrical setting, and surrounded by the beautiful park, the music, the words or the images will certainly take on unsuspected meanings.

Each year, throughout the summer season, a painter, video artist, sculptor, photographer, writer or musician – chosen by us – exhibits in the Villa his or her works according to his or her wishes and tastes, thus transforming the place into a small ephemeral museum. A magical experience!

Artist 2026

Gilbert Herminjard Friendships in Mirror

“There is no better mirror than a true friend.” Japanese proverb

Opening on 7 June 2026 at 5pm – Permanent exhibition from 13.5.2026 to 17.10.2026

“With pleasure, Christophe! I would be glad to exhibit a selection of my watercolours provided that I can also display works I have collected throughout my life.” This is how my proposal was received by my friend Gilbert Herminjard. The guiding idea being to reveal the hidden beauties of Villa Pineta through a fruitful dialogue between architecture and painting.

A few weeks later, his cardiovascular accident tragically put an end to this beautiful prospect. Upon his death in October 2022, I heard that he believed I was able to take care of his legacy. Since then, this task – beautiful and demanding – has accompanied me like a melody one hums when life seems particularly beautiful.

Gilbert Herminjard was an artist with a unique style made from so little, yet evoking so much. He also proved to be a remarkable collector throughout his life. His private collection shows a very sure taste, tells of deep friendships, and wonderfully reflects half a century of thriving artistic life in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. To have such a testimony is an immense privilege. To share it with you, dear guests, is even more so!

Come discover this perspective so dearly wished for by Gilbert Herminjard, through our new exhibition “Gilbert Herminjard: Friendships in Mirror.”

Christophe Schenk

Artist 2024-2025

Gilbert Herminjard Retrospective to the work of a lifetime

The idea of paying a tribute to Gilbert Herminjard (1930-2022), a painter and watercolourist from the Canton of Vaud, dates back to before the reopening of Villa Pineta in July 2021. He was a dear friend who provided immense support when doubts arose and problems piled up! Will I succeed? His deep joy at the mere mention of my project helped me overcome all the vicissitudes I came across.

Today, it is his art, freed from all limits and constraints, that dazzles those willing to take the time to look. For it is the fate of those who have ploughed their style free from fashions to become modern in their turn, unintentionally.

Opening on 25 May, 2024 at 5pm – Permanent exhibition from 17.5.2014 to 20.10.2024

‘It took Gilbert Herminjard more than 40 years before he dared to hold his first exhibition (1991). It reveals a lot about him, about his deep-seated nature, his exacting standards, and the path he took that was so essential to him. When Gilbert Herminjard shared his art with others, he was ready, his painting was there, singular, and assertive, matured internally, made from so little, but evoking so much. As he liked to say: “everything is in everything and everywhere”.

Tracing the course of his life, creating a retrospective in the true sense of the word, is impossible simply because he destroyed everything that came before. And that’s also part of his approach, part of his character. So many sketches were eliminated as soon as they were completed – three quarters of what he produced, according to one journalist – in order to keep only what corresponded “to my fibres“. We therefore know nothing of a whole section of his work (1950-1990) which he threw away since it did not correspond to what he was striving for with all his being. Some testimonies may still adorn the walls of friends and family. How tempting it would be today to look at them in order to guess the route taken. But we have decided not to reproduce these works in order to be faithful to and respectful of what the artist intended throughout his life.

Having inherited his legacy – which includes hundreds of watercolours that have never been exhibited – numerous questions arise: can we present works that are not signed? What importance should be given to the different phases of his creation? Should they be mixed? Should we bear in mind that when Gilbert Herminjard exhibited, he only showed the works of the moment, and did not go back over what had been done before?

Between 1991 and the last evidence of his work in 2013, his language continued to evolve, despite the profound unity of his style. At times he was more secret, on the verge of silence, at other times more figurative, to better capture the material, the texture of life. Finally, the colours and the use of watercolour itself brought the painter to the threshold of his final style, the culmination of an uninterrupted quest. We are left speechless and overwhelmed by this compendium of grace, strength, and serenity.

Gilbert Herminjard stopped painting because his hand no longer allowed him to say and do what he wanted. I think – with hindsight – that he also stopped because he had reached the shores he had so longed for.

Our retrospective at Villa Pineta includes, for the first time, the last works ever exhibited, produced between 2010 and 2013.’