An automaton in the workshop of Swiss master François Junod in Sainte-Croix (Switzerland) on January 19, 2021 / AFP
In his workshop set in a snow-covered setting, Francois Junod’s mechanical masterpieces come to life: birds whistle and historical figures write poetry. The ancient art of the Swiss master has just entered the cultural heritage of humanity.
The know-how that gave birth to some of the most admired watches and automatons in the world has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries in these Jura mountains, on the Franco-Swiss border.
And now this intimate marriage between science, technology and art is distinguished by the United Nations. “If the mechanisms are generally hidden, they can also be visible, and this contributes to the poetic and emotional dimension of these objects”, underlines Unesco which registered this craft in December on its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. .
François Junod works on a mechanical android bearing the image of Leonardo da Vinci, himself an inventor and a genius engineer. He has eyelids and his shining eyes follow his hand writing from left to right.
Swiss master François Junod in his studio, January 19, 2021 / AFP
“It’s close to magic,” launches the master, giving life to the head of the father of the Mona Lisa, during a meeting with AFP.
“There is a momentum, a renewed interest in these objects because we are in a period, a time when we live in all electronics and review mechanical objects, there is a whole mystery that reappears, all a magic that returns, which had disappeared a little before ”, explains François Junod.
“I think that’s what brings interest back and brings back to life this profession which had somewhat disappeared anyway”.
– Whisper of cogs –
The workshop is located in Sainte-Croix in western Switzerland, just five kilometers from the French border.
The region is closely linked to watchmaking and the mechanical arts, since the persecution of Protestants in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The refugees brought with them their skills, their culture and their love of a job well done.
The tranquility of the mountains, “it goes very well with the job,” notes the master. At 61, he carries the torch of a family which for four generations has been practicing precision mechanics in this village of 4,400 souls.
The workshop of Swiss master François Junod, January 19, 2021 / AFP
In his workshop, cogwheels and pistons compete with mechanical butterflies, a galloping horse, 19th century music boxes and giant birds in colorful colors.
Adding to the baroque atmosphere, among a host of tools, sits a skeleton wearing a feathered hat that serves to model the movements, arms and legs that hang from the ceiling above shelves loaded with miniature heads under the gaze of a giant eye whose iris turns music.
– Patience and time –
François Junod and his team work on five to six pieces at a time. The art they practice requires patience, ingenuity and curiosity.
It took five years to make the automaton embodying the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, capable of writing 1,458 poems … in ink. The flying carpet took two years of effort.
Mechanical birds in the workshop of the Swiss master François Junod, January 19, 2021 / AFP
“You have to like the difficulty. It needs patience. You have to be passionate “, enumerates the owner, adding: they are” really true works of art with a complexity in every way identical to watchmaking “.
Within the same workshop, everyone will make an automaton with their own style, underlines François Junod. “That’s what gives it a soul. He really has a soul! There are never two identical automata ”.
“That’s what makes the charm of the profession,” he says.
– The Fairy Ondine and the future –
The timeless charm of this art seduces even the smartphone generation. François Junod tells how his fairy Ondine, sitting on a water lily with flapping wings as she wakes up to contemplate a butterfly escaping from a blooming flower has fascinated the public in Beijing, London, Paris or Geneva.
Each time, young people gathered around her and filmed her with their iPhones, “because things move.” It is magic. It’s poetic. It’s magic, the spectacle of automatons, ”he says.
An automaton representing Leonardo da Vinci writing, in the workshop of Swiss master François Junod on January 19, 2021 / AFP
And if he is the heir of a secular tradition, he does not shun new technologies. Quite the contrary. He embraced 3D printing which opened up new possibilities to overcome the limitations of traditional tools.
“The imagination can go further. We have more possibilities ”rejoices the master. “Almost anything is possible”.
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