Dora Formica

Dora Formica

02.12.2023 – 18.02.2024

Opening 2nd+3rd DECEMBER, 11:00-21:00

Indian ink, watercolor, colored pencils, neocolors, Dora Formica juggles techniques according to the illustrations she creates. She enjoys working in both small and large formats. Her work can be seen on the covers of the Semaine du Goût magazines, or in the Saint-François underpass in Lausanne, where a 20-metre-long fresco recounts anecdotes from the Bourg-Saint-François district.

Mosaic Room invites the Swiss illustrator to reinterpret Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1971 documentary “Le Mura Di Sana’a”, felt pens in hand. The 12-minute short film is a cry from the heart to save the priceless architectural heritage of the city of Sana’a, capital of Yemen. The country was then emerging from an internal armed conflict that would put an end to the monarchy. Despite the conflict, the old town of Sana’a, protected by fortifications, was completely intact. Ochre bricks façades adorned with white architectural details, moucharabiehs, coloured stained-glass windows, bas-reliefs: the state of preservation of this medieval city is unique in the world.

Dora Formica unveils the walled city at its peak, the one Pasolini filmed 50 years earlier in the hope of protecting it. The 3.7-metre-long fresco unfurls a lost landscape before our eyes, rather like opening a time capsule. The artist, accustomed to capturing her travels in small notebooks, this time spreads out her drawing on a long piece of corrugated cardboard, featuring a succession of medieval “skyscrapers” with ivory-white outlines, overhung by a cloudless, pastel-blue sky. In an age of global warming, when we struggle to ventilate our concrete houses, regulated by energy-hungry air-conditioning, we can’t help but admire the architecture of 8th-century pisé, a method of building in raw earth, a natural material that is extremely durable and perfectly adapted to the hot, dry climate of the Arabian desert. The roof terraces serve as open-air bedrooms, while the windows invite the slightest breeze to enter the house, while letting in the light.

Born in Lausanne in 1987, Dora Formica published her first illustrated book in May 2013 with Editions Hélice-Hélas under the title “Curry, kiwis and caipirinha, an illustrated journey around the world”. Since then, she has worked as a freelance illustrator on private and public commissions. She is particularly fond of the neocolor technique, which enables her to draw on the move or create large, vibrant paintings. She is a member of the “La Bûche” collective, which brings together around a hundred Swiss female illustrators. She lives and works in Lausanne.

Opening hours

Monday/Tuesday

11:30-18:30

Wed – Sat

11:30-14:00

18:00-21:00

Sunday

12:00 – 16:00

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