Jardin d’Hiver #3. DECORAMA

Bringing together work by ten visual artists employing ornamentation and decoration to challenge concepts of taste, class and gender, the exhibition springs from Vaud’s long tradition of developing the decorative and applied arts.

While we know today that ornamentation is a marker of humanity, the question of ornament and its value continues to fuel debates. By turns Plato and Aristotle, for example, condemned ornament and
restored it to favour. What was once seen as a meaningless imitation became, in their view, a symbol of the divine—a conduit of knowledge. Ornament has always been closely tied to the concepts of function
and beauty. For centuries, it served a moral purpose, as artisans, artists, and citizens adhered to established decorative conventions to align with the dominant social and religious order.

It was in the twentieth century, with the advent of modernism, that ornament, confused with the decorative, was invalidated, often mocked, by the functionalist and elitist discourses of architects such as Le Corbusier and Adolph Loos, and painters such as Vassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. Industrialisation and mechanisation made it possible to clone motifs as one wished, relegating craftsmanship to the ranks of the so-called “minor arts”.

Ornament has long been associated with debates around gender identity and sexual orientation, with adornment—once referred to as “finery”—often being linked to the “feminine” and perceived as an unnecessary, excessive, or even monstrous frivolity. Since the rise of Postmodernism, however, ornament has reclaimed a prominent place within socalled “major” art forms. Yet, in reality, ornament has always been a persistent, unapologetic presence in art, continuously utilized (and embraced) as a formal, conceptual, and even political tool. DECORAMA showcases visual artists who use ornamentation and decoration to challenge ideas of taste, class, and gender. While the diverse practices in this exhibition might seem speculative when brought together, the exhibition remains firmly rooted in the Canton of Vaud’s long-standing tradition of developing and promoting the decorative and applied arts.

DECORAMA pays tribute to Marc Camille Chaimowicz (1947, Paris – 2024, London), who passed away just a year ago. His work and ideas served as the inspiration for this exhibition. The featured artists

Curator of the exhibition: Elise Lammer