After almost two years of preparation, an event that was meant to bring together the worlds of art and charity for an evening finally took place on October 7th. Dave had invited René Prêtre, Swiss person of the year 2009, to his hometown of Laufen. Mr Prêtre, who is chief physician for heart surgery at the Zürich children's hospital, owes his high profile to the charitable work he does with his foundation "Le petit coeur", which provides free heart operations for children in need in developing countries.
Around a hundred guests were invited to see the exhibition, which took place in a space of around 1000 m2. The evening's highlights were Mr Prêtre's presentation, which offered fascinating insights into his charitable work, and the first showing of the performance "Tote Episode" ("Dead episode"), held in complete darkness with the aid of fluorescent paint.
The goals of the evening were to create a cultural experience that falls outside of the usual patterns, and to raise awareness for the problems in developing countries as well as encouraging personal initiative. In order to contribute to this personally as well, Dave will be donating 20% of the proceeds for any work of his that is sold until the end of November 2011 to "Le petit coeur".
Special thanks go out to Bank Valiant, who not only contributed significantly to the evening's success with their sponsorship, but also by taking on with great energy much of the organisational effort required to make it happen, as well as making a donation of their own to "Le petit coeur".
A few impressions of the event and performance can be found in the slideshow above. (Photography: Dani Altermatt, airwave.ch)
