HUNTER LONGE

Reliques d’une mer évaporée

Gypsum, bronze, 2026

Just beneath the trees and pathways of Szilassy Park lie the remains of an ancient ocean. More than 200 million years ago, as it slowly receded, it left behind not only the salt for which the region is known, but also significant deposits of gypsum. Widely used in construction the form of plaster—yet often detached from any awareness of its origins—gypsum becomes, in Longe’s project, a material manifestation of the genius loci, bearing witness to the subtle influence that distant past continues to have in the present.

Gypsum may appear white, grey, or, in its most pure crystalline form, almost transparent. Here, however, Longe is drawn to the shapes it assumes through erosion, forms that at times resemble ruins, where human intervention seems nearly discernible. In order to reveal these otherwise invisible formations, the artist collaborated with a “sourcière” and “sourcier,” both also trained in “géobiologie” (the study and detection of telluric energy networks and spirits). Together, they identified sites within the park where gypsum lies close to the surface, where ancient water veins once flowed, and, when possible, where these intersect with energetic phenomena.

At these points, a series of excavations, reminiscent of graves, echo the Hope-Szilassy family cemetery located within the park. From these tomb-like openings emerge small, heavily eroded gypsum statuettes that stand as silent guardians. They recall the Lares, Roman deities, protectors of place sometimes referred to as genii loci, “spirits of the place.”

The excavations and statutes bring to light formations that sustain a certain ambiguity: are they the product of the artist’s intervention, or the result of centuries of water sculpting matter?

Hunter Longe (USA, b. 1985*) lives and works in Switzerland.
Reliques d’une mer évaporée is supported by the City of Geneva. The artwork was created in collaboration with Foli.Works, Kunstguss Basel, Marie-Claude Jeanneret-Gris (water diviner / geobiologist), Laurent Oreiller (geobiologist), and Nicolas Meisser (geologist, UNIL).