Design, photography, sound and film come together for a stellar Royal Oak 40th anniversary worldwide exhibition. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Audemars Piguet’s iconic timepiece Royal Oak, the world’s first ever luxury sports timepiece which sparked a complete paradigm shift in the watch industry, the Swiss Manufacture from Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux has put together a unique, ephemeral exhibition.

Sebastien Leon Agneessens, the creative mind behind the overall design of the exhibition, drew his inspiration from the origins of the brand in Le Brassus. Hundreds of tubular sticks of different heights symbolising the forests of the valley area are treated as organ-like sound sculptures surrounding the exhibition area, which is made to resemble a fragmented mineral rock typically found in the Vallée de Joux

The contemporary lens of photographer Dan Holdsworth captures the terrain of the Vallée de Joux and its special – cosmic – relationship to time. He documents the Valley at its stillest hours, capturing the ancient forests and glacial topography under the celestial presence of mist or moon to convey the extraordinary temporal significance vested in the landscape.

Quayola's work for Audemars Piguet 40-years exhibition is a study and celebration of ‘matter’ itself, the substance of all physical objects. The installation focuses on a continuous transformation and metamorphosis of matter: from the grace, complexity and unpredictability of geological forms, to the perfection, beauty and precision of man-made objects of art. Through a process of continuous mutation and metamorphosis it explores simultaneously classical art, 1970s sculpture and contemporary digital aesthetics.