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Opened last May, the Maison de la mécanique d’art is an exhibition space created in Geneva to enable visitors to discover or rediscover the heritage and exceptional expertise of today’s craftsmanship of art mechanics. These traditional skills unique in the world have been on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2020.
Artisanal watchmaking, which developed extensively in the Franco-Swiss Jura Arc from the 17th century onwards, was crucial to art mechanics. In the 18th century, the region’s skills and know-how diversified into music boxes and clocks, and later into songbirds and automata.
Over the years, these creations have evolved through innovation to create mechanical works featuring multiple and surprising functions. Artists and artisans perpetuate this tradition and do their utmost to ensure that these skills live on.
Setting up this space in Geneva makes perfect sense when you consider that it was Geneva native Antoine Favre who invented the music box in 1796. Following the development of watchmaking in the Jura region, which had originated in Geneva in the 16th century, Sainte-Croix made this invention its very own, enhancing it and turning it into an industry.
As a result, art mechanics became a speciality of Sainte-Croix, not only with music boxes, but also with singing birds and automata. Today, all these skills can be found in the Institut de la mécanique d’art, in Sainte-Croix, as well as in the workshops of the artisans of this placed known as the “Jura balcony”, the only place in the world where all these skills are grouped together in a single municipality.
Until 17 November, visitors can discover the temporary exhibition titled Mechanical Marvels. The Maison de la mécanique d’art is open every first Saturday of the month.
July 11, 2024