Mountain Climbers: revisiting a Swiss icon, is an ambitious cultural and entrepreneurial project. This 100 % Swiss undertaking aims to combine recycling and sustainability to benefit a charitable organisation.
The project consists in salvaging 40 dismantled ski gondolas and have them transformed by 40 artists, architects and designers. Some of these creators are already internationally renowned or are recognised as rising stars in their field. All of them have generously offered their creative talent at no cost other than receiving a fixed budget allocated to cover material and implementation costs.
Once transformed, the gondolas will be exhibited around Switzerland then sold at auction by Christie's. The proceeds of this auction will be donated to Make-A-Wish Foundation of Switzerland who grants the most heartfelt wishes of ill children throughout Switzerland. Make a Wish The project will run over three years. The first phase will be dedicated to the project management, promotion and the artistic transformation of the gondolas. The second phase will consist of various exhibitions to be held in 2014: in Basel during Art Basel / Design Miami week, in the Valais for a summer exhibition and finally at Geneva Airport. The final phase will be the auction held by Christie's.

Participants / Mécènes

  • Adrien Rovero / VFP Immobilier, Verbier
  • Alexandre Joly
  • Alexis Georgacopoulos
  • Allegory
  • Anoush Abrar
  • Atelier Oï / Alatus SA
  • Atelier XJC
  • Bonnard & Woeffray
  • Buchner & Bründler + Benedikt Schiefer
  • Camille Scherrer
  • Collectif Fact
  • Delphine Frey
  • d’Esposito & Gaillard
  • ECAL / Pierre Mirabaud
  • Elena Montesinos / Pierre Darier
  • Fabrice Gygi
  • Florian Hauswirth
  • Frères Chapuisat
  • Fulguro
  • Group 8
  • Jessica Terrapon + Romain Lagrange
  • Jörg Boner + Lela Scherrer / Teo Jakob
  • Laetitia Florin + Dimitri Bähler
  • Lifegoods
  • Localarchitecture / Pierre Darier
  • Nicolas Le Moigne / Adrien de Loës
  • Noémie Doge
  • O.V.N.I. (Elena Montesinos + Virginie Morillo)
  • Philippe Cramer / Calber Création
  • Philippe Rahm
  • Philippine Courtière S.
  • Rolf Sachs
  • Sam Voltolini
  • Savioz & Fabrizzi
  • Sibylle Stoeckli / Mirabaud & Cie
  • Tété Knecht / Diane Schasca - snd avocats
  • Thilo Alex Brunner & Jörg Mettler
  • Yanes Wühl
  • Yarisal & Kublitz
  • Yasmine Gaillard

The project is managed by three young entrepreneurs from Geneva: Inès Flammarion, Nicolas Bernheim and Albert Schrurs. They are managing this project on a voluntary basis, outside of their professional occupations.
In order to manage this project, they co-founded the Association Mountain Climbers – a not-for-profit which is registered in the Valais and which has tax exemption status.

Inès Flammarion is a graduate of Christie's Education and a member of the Geneva Contemporary Museum of Art's Friends Association. She is an independent art consultant for private and corporate collectors.
Nicolas Bernheim is a graduate of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne and the Luigi Bocconi University in Milan. He is specialised in marketing and communication and is currently working at a brand consulting firm in Zürich.
Albert Schrurs is an architect, graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and a MAS Luxury graduate in Design from the Lausanne School of Arts and Design. He is a co-founder of Allegory sàrl.

Galleries

The project is made possible thanks to generous donations as well as its strength in offering powerful marketing and communication sponsorship opportunities to private donors and companies. Today, the project's feasibility is guaranteed, however the overall budget has not yet been reached.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Sponsors

Exhibition partners

Mudac Design Miami Genève Aéroport SIS Christies

Media Partners

DADI Magazine YOOKOO

Partners

Les Vins du Valais Televerbier Café des Banques Le verre à Monique

Event partners

Viandes fleury Maison d'alpage

Project ambassadors

Chantal Prod'Hom, Director of the MUDAC in Lausanne

Cynthia Odier, Founder of the Flux Laboratory
Heidi Wegener, Former president of the Design Preis Schweiz
Michèle Rossier, Director of Téo Jakob, Geneva
Patrick Raymond, President of the Swiss Federal Design Commission
Pierre Mirabaud, Former president of the Swiss Bankers Association

Adrien de Loës, Co-founder of Sensometrix
Camille Aymon Agat, Graphic designer, Co-founder of Johnny be Good

Florian Schmied, Co-founder of Trivial Mass Production and President of FLAC
Guillaume Beauverd, Serial entrepreneur
Nev’eda Tegin, PR Manager at Sparkle PR and former TV Host on RTS
Pascal Meyer, Founder of QoQa

Tatyana Franck de Maud'Huy, Independent curator
Thomas Hug, Director of ArtGenève
VIrginie Biffl, Founder of My Playground communication agency

Thanks

Alexis Georgacopoulos, Director of ECAL - University of Arts & Design Lausanne
Emmanuel Grandjean, Editor in Chief of DADI Magazine
Eric Balet, CEO of Téléverbier
Eveline de Proyart, Vice-President of Christie's Switzerland
Fiona Morrison, CEO of Make-A-Wish Foundation of Switzerland
Marianne Goebl, Director of DesignMiami
Pierre Keller, President of ELAC
Robert Deillon, Director of Genève Aéroport
Stéphanie Cramer, Mitterand+Cramer Advisory


Anne Lamunière
Annik Wetter, photograph
Eric Rogers
Helen Calle-Lin
Jean-René Longchamp
Maître Gregorc, notary
Mandana Sappino
Rebecca Bowring, photograph
Sébastien Brocard, chocolate maker

Distillerie Morand
Ecole Moser Genève
GVA Studio
Manège de Vandoeuvres
Mathys SA
Nespresso
Pigment Communication Design
Risk security services
SUMO interactive
UBS

Download the press kit
02.07.2012PHOTOS: Transformation by Adrien Rovero: ROCK
18.06.2012Transformation by Adrien Rovero, ROCK unveiled at MUDAC
01.01.2012PHOTOS: Original gondolas
01.01.2012PHOTOS: Mountain Climbers - portraits

Press
01.03.2013Ideat - n°99
01.02.2013Blouin Art Info
01.12.2012Gustavmag
20.11.2012Institute - n°7
11.10.2012DADI - n°3
08.10.2012Ignant.de
15.09.201230° degrés - n°40
03.09.2012Migros Magazine - n°36
31.08.2012The Good Life Magazine - n°5
14.08.2012RTS 1 - 12:45
08.08.2012Dudye.com
22.07.2012DesignApplause.com
05.07.2012Designboom.com
05.07.2012Mocoloco.com
19.06.2012Tribune de Genève / tdg.ch
26.03.2012Eatdrinkch.com
26.01.2012Hotel Revue
03.01.2012Le Temps
03.11.2011RTS Couleur 3 - Interview
02.11.2011Tribune de Genève / tdg.ch

Company address
Association Mountain Climbers
Chalet Amadeus, Apt 348B
Ch. des Vernes,
CH-1936 Verbier

Mailing Address
Inès Flammarion
1 rue Henri Blanvalet
CH-1207 Genève

Inès Flammarion
+41 79 248 87 12
Nicolas Bernheim
+41 79 632 02 04
Albert Schrurs
+41 79 292 91 89

info@mountainclimbers.ch
www.mountainclimbers.ch

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Website SUMO interactive