MB&F M.A.D. Gallery Geneva Watch Week 2014

DonCorson · 2014-01-25T13:15:56Z

Explore the MB&F M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva with DonCorson's 2014 report, showcasing unique mechanical art and horological creations.

Geneva Watch Week 2014 - MB&F M.A.D. Gallery (horological interest at the end)

While it is normal that watch brands have boutiques to sell their wares, it is a little out of the ordinary that a watch brand has an art gallery as its primary sales point. But then we are talking about MB&F, Max Büsser and Friends. Not your "run of the mill" watch brand.

The MB&F M.A.D. Gallery (Mechanical Art Devices) is located in the old town of Geneva on a picturesque little street. Already the look in the show windows lets us know that we will be entering unfamiliar territory.

We are directly confronted with some of the alien creatures created by the Chinese artist Xia Hang who lives and works in Peking. His objects form the pervasive background to the rest of the collection.

Quentin Carnale's magnetic works center around two things that are normally antithetic, watch parts and magnetism. As we all know, magnetism is the enemy of mechanical watches, causing as it does uncontrolled forces that can have a major effect on the timekeeping of a watch. Quentin Carnale's works, however work only through the use of these unseen forces.

The sculpture "Apesanteur" (Weightlessness) is a magnetic disk holding a inch high pile of watch parts and supported above the sculptures foot by a magnetic field. Any disturbances cause the disk to start turning, stable 2 inches above the foot.

The second work by Quentin Carnale in the gallery is "Infinie". With the lights off it presents itself as a simple mirror.

With the lights on we see little heavenly bodies receding into the distance through the mirrors. Those heavenly bodies are again magnets encrusted with watch parts that they are holding.

For those who need a celebratory audience the clapping hands can be called on at any time. Martin Smith's kinetic sculptures called the Applause Machine are manufactured by Laikingland.

Light sculptures are the domain of Frank Buchwald. Frank makes every part of his works except the light bulbs themselves.

The Japanese motorcycle enthusiast and graphic designer Chicara Nagata creates works of art that resemble motorcycles based around vintage motorcycle engines. This one, his Chicara Art V is based on a Harley-Davidson motor from 1954.

Bob Potts is a USA based kinematic sculptor. His apparently simple works make complex movements using very few parts.

Integration and disintegration is the topic for Swiss artist Fabian Oefner with his intricate photomontages. Starting with very true to life models he photographs each part separately integrating them all together only in his synthetic photos. Fascinating.

I guess my Grandfather might have been able to remember the penny farthing. Strange bicycles only for clement landscapes and weather. Zdenek Mesicek from Celožnice in the Czech Republic builds these bicycles by hand.

Just About Now is an object where one is not sure how it could be possible to live without it. Start the sand timer by using the spoon to but sand in the recipient. The sand runs slowly out and nothing apparently happens. The gong sounds when the recipient is empty. This indication of the passing of time was designed by Maarten Baas and is made by Laikingland.

Is it really a working guitar? Ulrich Teuffel's "Rhodium Prodigy Birdfish" guitar is as much a sculptur as a really playable guitar.

A whole armada of Sterling engines made by Böhm Stirling Technik.

The Music Machine from Ruege Music in Ste. Croix was presented at the last BaselWorld fair. A classical music box in MB&F styling.

Along with the Mechanical Art I also saw some Horological Art, timepieces from MB&F. The newest version of the HM5, this time with a red gold case. The red gold case makes the watch somewhat heavier than the earlier versions, even with some weight saving inside, but this is not disturbing. On the other hand the color perks up the timepiece and the contrast with the louvers makes the this version much more interesting IMO.

The LM2 is MB&Fs latest, here we can see both the silver and blue dials. Very nicely finished, the least one can say is that there is lots of activity on the dial. Even though I know that the 2 balances are not synchronised I sort of expected them to be.

Personally I prefer the HM (Horological Machine) line of MB&F pieces. These LM (Legacy Machines) seem to me to be two faced. The dial side is big and modern; somehow the little twinkling of a tiny enamel subdial and some loopy text engraving can not overcome the stubbornly modern style. The movement side is then very legacy and from the size and overall look could be coming from an old pocket watch. Each element seen for itself is beautifully done, but in my eyes at least, they don't really fit together. They just seem incoherent. What do you think?

The next time you are in Geneva the M.A.D. Gallery is definately worth a look.
Don

This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2014-01-25 14:38:44

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