Exhibitions

In Troubled Waters

Immersive exhibition featuring more than twenty audiovisual testimonies from a valley long lived in clandestinity — historians, artists, distillers and residents tell the story of absinthe. The aim: to preserve the intangible cultural heritage of this regional spirit.

When
–
Where
Maison de l'Absinthe, Môtiers, Val-de-Travers
Plan your visit 
Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (1 of 8)

“En eaux troubles” — In Troubled Waters — is the mysterious title of the Maison de l’Absinthe’s new exhibition, opened on 22 October 2022.

The drink clouds over, hearts warm and tongues loosen. Our museum has carried out an investigation and invites you to discover more than twenty testimonies from a valley so long clandestine.

Testimonies never heard before — outlandish, sharp, moving and even a touch polemical — are projected for the pleasure of absinthe lovers. In an intimate, immersive setting you can listen to the sometimes whispered stories of those interviewed. The choice of audiovisual content follows one of the Maison de l’Absinthe’s fundamental aims: to safeguard the intangible heritage of absinthe. Knowledge of a kind that tends to disappear with those who hold it in secret.

Anne Bisang (director of the Théâtre populaire romand), Benjamin Locatelli (artist), Jean-Pierre Jelmini (historian and former director of the Museum of Art and History of Neuchâtel), Jean-Pierre Juriens (a policeman at Môtiers in the 1950s), Françoise Bovet (distiller) and many other witnesses of the green fairy placed their trust in the Maison de l’Absinthe by recounting their finest anecdotes about the regional spirit.

Practical information

“En eaux troubles” is accessible to people with reduced mobility. It is for young and old alike. The testimonies are in French, subtitled in German.

  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (2 of 8)
  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (3 of 8)
  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (4 of 8)
  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (5 of 8)
  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (6 of 8)
  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (7 of 8)
  • Screen capture of a video testimony in the En eaux troubles exhibition (8 of 8)
Events & exhibitions

The complete programme

All the dates — exhibitions, tastings, workshops and experiences. Browse what is on and book when you are ready.

View the programme 

The other temporary exhibitions

  • Exhibitions

    Henry-Louis Pernod, a visionary

    Thirteen bilingual panels, original objects, a portrait film and an animated map retrace the birth of Pernod Fils at Pontarlier in 1805 and the rise of a distillery that shaped the history of the aperitif.

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  • ExhibitionsMaison de l'Absinthe, Môtiers, Val-de-Travers

    A Bottle at Sea

    Exhibition around the odyssey of a cargo of absinthe that left Couvet and Pontarlier in 1871 aboard the three-masted vessel Marie-Thérèse, whose bottles were recovered from the seabed in 1991. One surviving bottle is displayed as the centrepiece.

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  • ExhibitionsMaison de l'Absinthe, Môtiers, Val-de-Travers

    Delirium!

    Collaborative exhibition with Visarte Neuchâtel presenting nineteen works by visual artists who take absinthe as their source of inspiration — paintings, three-dimensional works, engravings. A nod to the deliria of the collective imagination fed by the green fairy.

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  • ExhibitionsMaison de l'Absinthe, Môtiers, Val-de-Travers

    In All the Senses

    Interactive sensory exhibition inviting visitors to explore absinthe through sight, smell and taste, through workshops and scientific analysis modules. Developed in collaboration with specialists, it offers recognition games and an educational approach to the composition of absinthe.

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  • ExhibitionsMaison de l'Absinthe, Môtiers, Val-de-Travers

    Absinthe on Canvas

    Temporary exhibition bringing together around thirty works by artists from Franche-Comté, primarily paintings by students from the Xavier Marmier secondary school in Pontarlier. The centrepiece: an 8-metre canvas hung in the museum's central light well.

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