À partir de l’almanach du Messager boiteux, qui a inspiré l’almanach Vermot en France, Ephemeris explore les croyances populaires et les savoirs hérités, en résonance avec l’histoire culturelle du canton de Vaud. Créé en 1707, le Messager boiteux est toujours largement diffusé. Devenu emblématique, il mêle astrologie, prévisions météorologiques, conseils agricoles et pratiques de santé, illustrant la persistance des traditions anciennes dans un monde dominé par la rationalité scientifique. Dans Ephemeris, Olga Cafiero questionne les tensions entre science et croyance, cherchant à comprendre comment ces deux approches coexistent aujourd’hui. Multipliant les perspectives, elle observe les techniques contemporaines de prévisions météorologiques ; elle se penche sur les cires anatomiques des XIXe et Xxe siècles ; elle explore l’astronomie… Entre rationnel et mystique, les images puissantes de la photographe interrogent notre rapport au passé, à la connaissance et à l’imaginaire.
Le Messager Boiteux is Switzerland’s oldest almanac, first published in 1707. Still released annually to this day, it once dispensed crop-growing advice, lunar calendars and horoscopes, traditional remedies, and important information about politics and the local community. Olga Cafiero took the almanac as the starting point for her exploration of the infinite possibilities of the photographic medium. In a constellation of images, produced by an array of renderings and techniques, she picks up on various topics, sub-topics and related ruminations that inspire this near-biblical work of yesteryear. Cafiero depicts twinkling stars, menacing beasts, and superstitions re-imagined in the age of artificial intelligence. Her work also includes several series of documentary-style photographs, such as a catalogue of the wheat varieties grown in Vaud and aerial shots of the canton taken from a weather balloon equipped with GoPro cameras. This same tension between art and science is evident in Cafiero’s examination of the anatomical wax models long used as teaching aids in medical schools, as well as in her reproductions of original engravings from the almanac. Ultimately, Ephemeris is a reflection on the limits of our perception and on our relationship with reality, challenging the aphorism, printed in The Messager Boiteux, according to which “there is no sun for the blind, no thunder for the deaf.” text of the exhibition by Lydia Dorner for the Enquête photographique vaudoise, at Photo Elysée Lausanne from 28 August to 28 September, 2025.
