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Domestiques photogéniques
Médiathèque Valais
Date
23 May 2025–28 March 2026
Venue
Médiathèque Valais - Martigny
Curated by
Sylvie Délèze
Chantier du chalet de Hans Lehner, Lauchernalp, Lötschental, 1936. © Albert Nyfeler / Médiathèque Valais Martigny
Médiathèque Valais – Martigny revisits its audiovisual collections through the lens of animal domestication, a major cultural phenomenon that began in the Neolithic era. The exhibition showcases over 600 archival photographs highlighting the central role of animals in the now-vanished agro-pastoral economy of the Alps. It also pays tribute to the human knowledge and practices that shaped these relationships over millennia. Alongside this, the exhibition evokes the invisible domestic economy and the everyday life of the people of the Valais. This historical perspective is enriched by recent advances in archaeozoology and genetics.
The dog, the cow, the mule were not shaped in a day — they are the result of the slow and ingenious work of generations of breeders since the Neolithic. The selection of specific traits found in wild animals that our ancestors hunted or lived alongside made it possible for today’s domestic animals to appear, exist, and evolve.
Forming a photographic album of agriculture and daily life in the Alps, the exhibition Photogenic Domestics showcases more than 600 archival images — a heritage bearing witness to the final days of a subsistence agro-pastoral economy that has now disappeared.
In parallel, the exhibition highlights the often-invisible work of human domestic economy, recalling the labour and daily life of the people of the Valais.
It is a tribute to the animals and humans who walked side by side for over 5,000 years, thanks to knowledge patiently developed and passed down across the globe. A broader perspective enriched by recent discoveries in archaeozoology and genetics.
Price
7.- CHF
Famille Gaspoz, Evolène, ca 1925. © Rudolf Zinggeler, AFMH, Bern