Hôtel Philippoz

At night, while closing the front door you would tell us: “Good night! The Hôtel is closed.”

In June 2011, my grandmother definitively left her flat for the retirement house. She passed away a few months later.
Since July 2013, my father, my boyfriend and I slowly started to renovate the flat ourselves. My grandmother’s flat has transformed into a place of transition, in transition. A site where walls – and memories – are dismantled and rebuilt.

During the renovation, I decided to invite ten artists to visit my small mountain village and intervene in the space, to react and enter in a dialogue with this process of transformation. My intention with this project was to work and reflect on the memory of a place and to question the hierarchy of memories. Ten artists visited Hôtel Philippoz over the course of a year, in August 2013 (“Traces”), April 2014 (“Transmission”) and August 2014 (“Detachment”).

On September 3, 2016, as part of the village feast, Hôtel Philippoz hosted 250 guests for a soup cooked with the delicious vegetables offered by the villagers. Actress Catherine Travelletti (aka. Barbara, Hôtel Philippoz’ receptionist), guided the visitors through the rooms, while recalling a set of stories – both fake and true – about the place.

Guest artists : Mathijs van Geest (NL), Dico Kruijsse (NL), Daphné Roulin (CH), Mercedes Azpilicueta (AG), Line Marquis (CH), Tim Leyendekker (NL), Clare Butcher (SA), Lara Morais (PT), Ane Østrem (NO) and Marija Sujica (SRB).

* Hôtel Philippoz was made possible thanks to the generous support of the State of Valais and Loterie romande *