Thursday, March 20 
I had my office room all to myself again today! But that's not to say that there wasn't anybody else around; far from it, I got to talk with some people I'd spoken to a long time ago and correct some information I'd misremembered about their backgrounds and credentials. Swiss PHD chemical engineers are pretty cool guys. 😂
I left work at 5 today with the goal of taking advantage of the daylight. And I succeeded in taking a nice long walk to the see the confluence / junction of the rivers Rhone and Arve, along with some nice mountains in the background. The walk along the way to the tip of La Jonction featured some interesting characters lounging in the early evening but I suppose the place becomes a real hotbed of activity in the summertime with a halle and kayaking activities.
Huh, I'm not used to seeing this landscape in this light 😆
I gotta say, the countryside of Satigny & Meyrin is a sight prettier than the industrial grime of the Newark area.
In the red corner, the Rhone: coming fresh from the settling tank of Lake Leman with its vast flow and crystal clear water. In the blue corner, the Arve: crossing the border from France freshly laden with glacial melt.
At the tip of La Jonction, people were gathering along the water front as well as near this canopy with music playing, smoke, and drink. Nobody was actually under the canopy, I think they recognize that it's a real event space with dedicated stuff, like a boat.
Oh non, not even Geneva is safe from the scourge of pickleball! I'm actually not quite sure if this was pickle ball or some other racquet sport, it sounded like they were playing with tennis rackets still in their cases.
Et voila, la Jonction of the Arve and the Rhone! It was a longer walk than I'd expected but I see that many other people use this route for their evening footings.
Walking back along the neighborhood of St. John, I couldn't quite tell if I was seeing Mont Blanc or not.
From La Jonction (and the bridge overlooking it), I made my way to the Museum of Art and History. Turns out this museum takes that title pretty seriously: on the bottom floors, an impressive Swiss collection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts were on display with explanatory plaques around. On the top floor, I was treated to a variety of art: one exhibit was of music boxes and automata, while the others were either Swiss curated paintings of various eras related to the reformation or art from Swiss artists. Either way, I periodically heard notes of violins and found that the far end of the floor (for connecting the two wings) was closed off for a string concert; good thing I could still eavesdrop while studying modern Swiss landscape paintings.
I don't know if I've ever seen Roman history so succinctly summarized on a board. I'm no expert so I can't vouch to its validity 😅
"Yeah, just a little off the top, please"
I like when people in paintings are smiling, I feel like it adds a certain quality to the scene; so many portraits were serious so to smile is almost a way saying you don't take yourself too seriously.
Hmm, the iconic peaks of the Alps, eh?
Yo dawg, I heard you like paintings, so I put paintings in your painting.
This part of the museum shared a bit of overlap with the automata section of the Patek Phillipe museum but it was still its own thing. More or less, it pointed out the evolution of the music box from clockwork craftsmen as they moved from timers and alarms for clocks and watches into its own type of instrument. What was neat that some of the boxes had QR codes that allowed you to listen to them play. Some of these fancier clocks involved moving parts to go with the chime/music but later music boxes streamlined the focus on the quality and variety of music, using punched discs, folding sheet tabs, or a cylinder.
This painting titled "The Wave" caught my eye. It was painted in 1907 but it feels so much modern than that to me. I suppose the term "modern" art is relative; I'm not so sure how the term will persist when art students are discussing the art of 2400 vs 1900.
The mid/ground floor was an interesting walk through: I started at the mid-level which featured art from students of Geneva's School of Industrial Arts, which was basically a trade school that pushed students to create functional art (like pottery, cabinetry, metalworking, etc). I thought that was a neat piece of art history to highlight locally. Then the display put me through some eerily thematic all-wooden rooms with sparse decoration before depositing me on the ground floor. The ground floor was bizarre in that the museum was still putting together its upcoming exhibit so all the galleries were basically empty; however, I did come across the museum's extremely impressive collection of armor and arms.
I normally see furniture art in museums and don't pay it too much heed, but these ones drew my attention to the detail and mastery put into them. Strangely, each one was accompanied by a plaque with the crafter's name and year, and I think that made a difference to me rather than "this was the furniture of the Garibaldi family". These weren't the most detailed furniture I'd ever seen, but I did appreciate the work.
I initially chuckled at the idea of a bunch of staircase railings on display, but again learned to appreciate the detail in the work. I suppose schools to train craftsmen must've been vital before the transition to mass producing everything. A few of these made me think back to the Gaudi houses I saw in Barcelona.
I was funneled into these wood rooms next and I wasn't sure what to make of them. The atmosphere was quiet yet charged and each room featured what appeared to be a heater or something.
Downstairs, I was treated to multiple empty galleries 😂 I'm surprised I was even able to enter these rooms considering they were still setting up the new exhibit.
It all became clear as I entered into, what I presume is, the armory. Here, an abundant collection of armor, blades, bows, and guns were assembled. I only had a few minutes left in the museum so I didn't have a long time to admire nor read the plaques, but I was impressed by the sheer size.
Not only did they have cabinets and cabinets of ornately decorated guns, they also had some whacky ones in addition to more serious ones. The collection stopped with flint and matchlock guns, I suppose later than that would begin to feature more mass produced items or trophy hunter tools.
The museum is open till 9pm on Thursdays but I skedaddled a few minutes early and made my way home for a dinner in: melted gruyere, potatos, padrones peppers, and some dried meat. It was a luxious a feast as the Mont d'Or earlier in the week but the cheese didn't melt so completely this time.
Comments
Post a Comment