Avec: Claude Cortinovis, Bruno Gadenne, Yannick Lambelet, Michael Rampa, Andy Storchenegger.

This June, GOWEN invites artists Carine Bovey and Yannick Lambelet to co-curate a group presentation featuring six artists who respond to the theme of the male body. Joining forces as curators for the first time, the duo contribute to the wider gallery program with an intimate show which takes place at Rue Jean- Calvin 4.

In the exhibition, entitled Sans Armure (Without Armour), Carine Bovey (b. 1985, Beirut, Lebanon), Claude Cortinovis (b. 1967, Geneva, Switzerland), Bruno Gadenne (b. 1990, Cavaillon, France), Yannick Lambelet (b. 1986, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland), Michael Rampa (b. 1977, Château-d’OEx, Switzerland), and Andy Storchenegger (b. 1977, Jonschwil, Switzerland) explore the theme of the male nude, either from societal, introspective, romantic and even from mythological angles using painting and photography as their medium. With their multiple perspectives, they address men’s vulnerability in the face of the dictates of masculinity, offering an alternative view far from classical representations, inviting us to reflect on a topic that could not be more timely.

“Loin des représentations classiques, les six artistes s’interrogent sur la masculinité et le corps en posant un autre regard sur le corps de l’homme. Ces dernières décennies, le corps et le genre n’ont jamais autant remis en question nos certitudes sur les plans scientifiques, sociologiques et philosophiques.”
– Carine Bovey

In her extended text Viril ou vulnérable ? Le poids des injonctions sur le corps de l’homme written to accompany the exhibition, Carine Bovey considers different notions associated with the modern view of the male figure. Echoed in the selected works on show, Bovey addresses questions such as ‘What is virility?’, providing observations on gender stereotypes and sensuality, role reversals and the female gaze, punishment or vulnerability in classical and contemporary depictions and reconnecting naturism. In essence, she challenges the audience to contemplate the position of the male nude in society, and what it can represent today.

Yannick Lambelet, in his own writing Sans armure takes a retrospective look at this latest evolution of man, whose skin becomes a mirror of its time — reflecting aesthetic ideals, moral values, or the search for identity. From Antiquity, when the male body took shape in the image of hero, god, or warrior, embodying an ideal of beauty, through the Renaissance when, with the emergence of Humanism, it became a subject of scientific and artistic study, from Classicism and the shift of the male body from fantasy to reality, to Modernism and the tortured body exploring both individual and collective traumas, the evolution of the male nude perpetuates.

In our own contemporary era, boundaries are blurred, borders are pushed, where masculinity is deconstructed, and the body that carries it can become a political statement or a fetish object, a vessel of memory or a digitized hope. Above, all it is fragile, courageous, more authentic than ever. Around seven works are included in the exhibition.

Following Sans Armure, the gallery opens a solo artist presentation by Claude Cortinovis from July 3 until July 17, 2025. An Artist Talk will be held on Thursday July 10, 2025.

Work by Carine Bovey will be on view this September at the Musée d’art de Pully in COME-BACK ! / L’ART FIGURATIF EN SUISSE: UNE SCÈNE AU FÉMININ group show curated by Victoria Mühlig, opening from September 13 to December 14, 2025.