Image: mudac - Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts, Lausanne
The mudac – Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts in Lausanne will present ‘Edouard Chapallaz’, an exhibition devoted to one of the significant figures of 20th-century Swiss and European ceramics. Drawn from the museum’s collection and supplemented by exceptional loans, the exhibition will run from 25 September 2026 through 31 January 2027 in Le carré, the museum’s exhibition space at Plateforme 10.
Chapallaz’s work is described by the museum through its sustained investigation of form, material and fire. A master of stoneware and glazes, he developed a distinctive ceramic practice rooted in earth and the landscapes around him. The exhibition frames his objects not only through their aesthetic qualities but also through the time, attention to material and respect for natural processes that shaped their making.
The presentation forms part of the mudac’s Archives du Design Romand, an initiative focused on the history and research of design in French-speaking Switzerland. It is intended to bring renewed attention to Chapallaz’s practice and to a body of work whose strength, according to the museum, is matched by the artist’s relative discretion. The project treats ceramics as both an artistic medium and a way of thinking about everyday experience and inhabiting the world.
Le carré extends across approximately 90 square metres and gives the museum a flexible setting for collection displays, external projects and more intimate exhibition formats. The space is also conceived as a laboratory for experimentation, allowing the mudac to respond to current themes while continuing its research into the Archives du Design Romand. ‘Edouard Chapallaz’ is among the projects specifically presented there.
The exhibition is curated by Marco Costantini, with scientific collaboration from Rafaël Santianez. Magali Conus is responsible for the scenography and Chris Gautschi for the graphic design. The mudac also acknowledges loans from the Barbier-Mueller Museums and the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, in Geneva.
A new monograph accompanying the exhibition traces nearly seven decades of Chapallaz’s creative work. Based on photographs, archival documents and family testimonies, the publication examines his career, his oeuvre and his continuing search for what it calls the “perfect form.” It includes contemporary photographs by his granddaughter Violaine Chapallaz and brings historical archives into dialogue with present-day perspectives on the studio, objects and the transmission of ceramic practice within the family.
The vernissage will take place on Thursday, 24 September, with official speeches at 6:15 p.m. in the foyer of the mudac–Photo Elysée building, followed by the opening of the exhibition in Le carré at 6:30 p.m. Admission to the opening is free. The exhibition will remain on view at mudac, Le carré, in Lausanne, until 31 January 2027.
