GAILING RICKLING

Empreintes

Excavations, raw wool from Bex, 2026

With Empreintes, the duo Gailing Rickling create a series of places to sit, pause and connect physically with the ground of the park. Installed at key points along the route, the works encourage us to experience the landscape not only through the eye but also with our other four senses, which tend to be sidelined in the visual arts. The placement of each piece is equally important: the seating areas are carefully aligned to offer some of the park’s finest vistas, echoing the viewpoints first designed into the landscape in the 19th century, while one area – circular in shape – serves as a gathering place where visitors can rest and spend time together.

At first glance, the interventions appear minimal in concept and execution: rather than adding materials, Gailing Rickling simply removed small amounts of earth, to be replaced once the exhibition ends, leaving almost no trace behind. Yet the works transform the life of the park, which remains closed to the public outside the Triennial, abruptly exposing previously hidden and protected patches of ground both to the elements and to visitors who choose to sit on them. As the exhibition progresses, the installations record the marks left on Szilassy Park’s ecosystem by human activity, prompting us to reflect on how we inhabit the world around us.

The rugs on display were made from wool from sheep in the Vallée des Plans near Bex by volunteers at the Filature de l’Avançon.

Héloïse Gailing (CH b. 1983*) and Marc Rickling (CH b. 1986*) live and work in Switzerland.