To you Alexandre, our big brother with a pure heart

You were born in La Chaux de Fonds in 1956. Your mother lived there with her sister Lady and her friend Paule. She worked as a secretary for an architect and was already sewing her clothes herself from furnishing fabrics. Your dad was a graphic designer in Bienne; slept at his workplace, he shaved at the fountain and when he walked in the street people shouted at him “Gérard Philippe!! »

 

They got married in blue and went on their honeymoon to Saintes-Marie-de-La-Mer by hitchhiking. When you were born, they lived in an apartment in a rental building in La Chaux-de Fonds, designed by the architect Le Corbusier.

 

Quickly, for financial reasons, they settled in Bossonnens in their father's house. Only one heated room and no bathroom but you ate on a 3-legged Teo Jakob table and you drank your milk in a rattan bucket chair on black and white cushions. Above your changing table, an animal fresco painted by your dad. Your play world outside, in nature and you had to create everything, invent everything.

 

When we arrived in Attalens in 1966, the siblings were complete.
Emanuelle born in 1959, Joséphine in 1964 conceived in Copenhagen during one of your parents' extremely rare trips abroad and Simon the youngest in January 1966.

And then it was a party! We each had our own room there, mother was able to give free rein to her creativity, to her desires both in terms of clothing and design, in an incessant search for new things and the financial means to achieve them. Dad painted in his spacious and bright studio.

 

Alexander!! Your artistic universe was born and you indulged in it to your heart's content. At a very young age, during a drawing competition, you won your first pick-up and your instamatic camera. We listened

“I like girls” by Dutronc and let's go on an adventure... already take photos. You were my pygmalion and I was your muse, the first. Many others followed. Your favorite and beloved Jeanette, whom you met in Zurich. You were then attending the Kunstgeverbeschule for photography.

 

Nothing showed your extreme sensitivity, this first heartache was the trigger. The wound was deep and continued to grow. The terrain was favorable... but you knew how to bounce back with incredible strength!

 

The good years followed with your sister Joséphine, who became a make-up artist. New muse that you quickly took into this world of VIPs, of endless nights, but mainly of incessant and fruitful work. It was a collaboration overflowing with Glamor and Love: 10 years of creative madness in Paris, Zurich and around the world.

 

From one day to the next you abandoned photography distorted by the digital age, which you swept away with an angry and disenchanted look.

 

New love story, new work space at the famous See-Rose bar in Zurich where you could give free rein to your extravagance and your originality.

Nothing was too good or too crazy!

 

Then the romantic breakup and the dark years that followed.

And little by little you came back. First to mom, later to us. You put all your heart and energy into cultivating and safeguarding the family heritage and the work of Charles Cottet with immeasurable dedication.

 

At the crossroads Filippo was your ultimate fireworks display, your swan song in letting him live with a sensual and sincere love.

The illness caught up with you and the house of Attalens was your last home base. You lived there peacefully in the reassuring and caring proximity of your brother Simon.

 

Emanuelle Cottet on 17.11.2022