Marcel Duchamp and the Forestay Waterfall

In August 1946, Marcel Duchamp spent five weeks in Switzerland, including five days at the Hotel Bellevue (today, Le Baron Tavernier) near Chexbres, on Lake Geneva. During his stay he discovered the Forestay waterfall. No research was ever done as to why the artist chose this waterfall and not another to become the starting point for, and ultimately the landscape of, his famous final masterpiece, "Étant donnés: 1° la chute d'eau, 2° le gaz d'éclairage" (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas). * * A multidisciplinary event that took place in May, 2010 in Cully, on Lake Geneva, near the Forestay waterfall, attempted to provide answers to this and many other questions about Duchamp's work. * * With texts and essays by Caroline Bachmann, Stefan Banz, Etienne Barilier, Lars Blunck, Paul B. Franklin, Antje von Graevenitz, Dalia Judovitz, Michael Lüthy, Bernard Marcadé, Herbert Molderings, Adeena Mey, Stanislaus von Moos, Francis M. Naumann, Mark Nelson, Molly Nesbit, Dominique Radrizzani, Michael R. Taylor, Hans Maria de Wolf, and Philip Ursprung. * * Special artistic contributions by Melanie Althaus, Ecke Bonk, Andreas Glauser, Peter Roesch, Roman Signer, Tadanori Yokoo, and many others. * * Published with Association Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp, Cully. *