Cingria – L’extincteur & l’incendiaire

Cingria: L’extincteur & l’incendiaire (“The extinguisher & the arsonist”) is meant as a photo album created from archival documents from the collection of Charles-Albert Cingria – a Swiss writer, poet and musician from the beginning of the XIXth century. His collection was made not only of the photographs taken of him, but also the drawings, paintings and sculptures that he inspired to a good number of artists (including Dubuffet, Modigliani, Augsbourg, Auberjonois and Theodore Strawinsky) giving a glimpse of the influence he had in the literary landscape of his time.

Framed by thematic introductory texts presenting different aspects of Cingria’s life and work, the album brings together numerous archival documents, gleaned from various places of preservation (Lausanne, Geneva, Bern, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Paris) but mainly from the Cingria Collection managed by the Centre des littératures en Suisse romande of the University of Lausanne.