Didier Rittener's 'Nuit blanche' at Circuit, Lausanne

In September 2002, Didier Rittener, a founding member of the Circuit association, presented 'Nuit blanche' at Circuit in Lausanne. The exhibition featured a black-and-white visual work that spread across the entire space, evoking a slow narcotic drift. Rittener's work marked a departure from his earlier neo-geo and pop art influences, abandoning ironic art-historical references and conceptual frameworks. Instead, he embraced autonomous, lightweight, purely visual imagery: superficial images devoid of pathos, short words like 'fuck', and slogans invaded walls, paintings, posters, newspapers, wallpaper, tiles, books, and floors. The contours were extremely precise, yet the images felt familiar but unplaceable, parasitizing each other and occasionally contaminated by abstract motifs like light dust floating after closing one's eyes. The work was described as a representation of images through drawing, but the artist's subjectivity was framed in clinical terms: lack of sleep, drunkenness, hangover, bad trip, insomnia, narcosis. Circuit, founded in 1998 by young artists, had revitalized Lausanne's contemporary art scene after a long drought following the Asher Edelmann foundation's departure in 1993 and the local fine arts museum's stagnation. Circuit hosted exhibitions by Blair Thurmann, Steven Parrino, Valentin Caron, and others, along with multiples, editions, and performances.