Galerie OBLIQUE
Galerie OBLIQUE is a space for contemporary art, over 200 m2 divided into seven galleries, two of which are double height.
Since September 2018, it has offered five exhibitions a year, showing the works of artists from French-speaking Switzerland, including one with a national reputation and one emerging artist from the region. It aims to be open to a mix of genres: figurative art, abstract art, conceptual art etc.
The gallery’s unique feature is that it offers the exhibiting artists the opportunity to interact with artists working in the studio on the first floor. Interactions include workshops, shared creations and all sorts of other activities, invented for each exhibition.
Galerie OBLIQUE was established by FOVAHM, the Valais foundation for people with learning difficulties, which runs the first floor studio. Eight disabled people work there, having chosen to take a personal artistic pathway since 2007.
The premises are on the ground floor of a group of late 17th century houses in the Grand-Rue of the town of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais. The renovation of the building involved conservation of the half classified as of federal historic importance and a highly contemporary approach to reinterpretation of the other half.
The name OBLIQUE was chosen as a reference to the oblique gaze, the unconventional vision, the step back from reality which are the essence of art in all its forms.