Sigillum Bestiarum - Romain Buffetrille

Description

From September 17 to December 31, 2026, Romain Buffetrille’s oil paintings will take over the Musée d’Estavayer-le-Lac and its frogs. Much like medieval bestiaries, Romain Buffetrille’s creatures blend the real and the fantastical in a series of allegorical visions. They unfold throughout the Musée d’Estavayer-le-Lac and its frogs across three temporalities: the era of ancient myths, where animals embody archetypal and symbolic figures; the present of an anthropized world, marked by the domestication, classification, and exploitation of living beings; and a post-collapse future, marked by the emergence of a spectral fauna, representing a mythology yet to come and a reinvented primordial garden. Romain Buffetrille’s visual language flows seamlessly between figuration and symbolism. Hybrid animal forms, demiurgic titans, and headless human figures emerge from enigmatic scenes, like so many apparitions. This is not so much naturalistic figuration as an exploration of the symbolic power of the image. As an iconographic artist, Romain Buffetrille creates mystery here and, through painting, establishes a poetic relationship with reality, giving form to a liminal imagination at the crossroads of nature and the supernatural, the visible and the invisible. ROMAIN BUFFETRILLE (*1999) is a painter originally from Donatyre, living and working in Fribourg. A graduate of the Académie de Meuron (Neuchâtel), he previously earned a CFC in library science, followed by a high school diploma from Eikon (Fribourg). He has devoted himself fully to painting since 2023, developing a practice that notably led him to exhibit at Galerie C in Neuchâtel alongside Léopold Rabus in 2025. As the recipient of the State of Fribourg’s artist-in-residence program at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, he will be there from September 2026 to February 2027. OPENING RECEPTIONAGE (with the artist in attendance) on Thursday, September 17, 2026, at 6:30 p. m.

Highlights

• Exhibition runs from September 17 to December 31, 2026
• Features Romain Buffetrille's oil paintings
• Explores themes of mythology and the anthropized world

General Information

Romain Buffetrille's exhibition at the Musée d’Estavayer-le-Lac showcases a blend of real and fantastical creatures through oil paintings. The works reflect on ancient myths, contemporary issues, and a speculative future, creating a dialogue between nature and the supernatural.

Location

Rue du Musée 13, 1470 Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland

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