For the first time, Saisons takes the form of an exhibition, bringing together Fribourg artists Maël Dupraz Nayak and Jordan Selophane with newly conceived works responding to the site’s layered history as a Masonic lodge, Franciscan chapel, gallery and cultural centre. The opening is scheduled for October 17, 2026, at 6pm, and the exhibition will be open from October 18 to 20, from 12pm to 6pm.
Saisons is a series of offsite events organized by the Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, conceived as an invitation to audiences, artists and cultural actors who contribute to Fribourg’s art scene from near and far. Developed each time within and in response to a unique site in Fribourg, the series seeks to create temporary communities through interactions among the people present, the artworks and the spaces.
Espace Pertuis is a deconsecrated chapel built into the rock in Fribourg’s medieval lower town, and its history includes use as a Masonic lodge from 1877 to 1885 and as the chapel of a Franciscan convent of nuns from 1888 to 1973. After a period of vacancy, it was deconsecrated in 1987 and converted into an art gallery and cultural centre.
For this site, the artists developed new works engaging with its multilayered history, embedded beliefs and material remnants, examining how these structures evolved and transformed over the centuries through the communities that inhabited them. Dupraz Nayak presents an installation using votive candles and text to question Western belief systems and dominant narratives. Text is a recurring element in his work, making visible the power structures and dominant narratives that shape contemporary imaginaries and manifest themselves in certain everyday objects.
Selophane relocates museum display cases into the former chapel as part of an installative and sculptural exploration of objects, architecture and changing cultural meanings.
