Agenda

Switzerland has been home to a number of soul-searchers over the years, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Developments in psychiatry and psychoanalysis have a close association with Switzerland, which is still in evidence today, for example, the pioneering Rorschach test, Ludwig Binswanger’s Daseinsanalysis or Jung’s analytical psychology.

To mark the 150th birthday of C. G. Jung, the National Museum Zurich is presenting the exhibition covering the history of the exploration of the human psyche in Switzerland, (Landscapes of the Soul. C. G. Jung and the exploration of the human psyche in Switzerland).

The main exhibit is the legendary ‘Red Book’ in which C. G. Jung made his notes during an intense spell of self-reflection. Art also helps open doors to the mind with visionary works by Johann Heinrich Füssli, Emma Kunz, Rudolf Steiner, Meret Oppenheim or Thomas Hirschhorn and, last but not least, Heidi Bucher, whose work ‘The Parlour Office of Doctor Binswanger’ sets an important accent.

The exposition provides a psychological panorama spanning every region of Switzerland, highlighting the connection between mind and landscape.

Sometimes objects fail to tell the full story behind formative developments in Switzerland’s recent past. The ‘Experiences of Switzerland‘ format focuses on contemporary witnesses. Their fates and experiences, which in most cases are not found in any archives or records, provide visitors with a multifaceted and emotional insight into Swiss history.

Featuring a different topic each year, the format does away with exhibits and instead presents a large-format, immersive projection with sound delivered through headphones. Meanwhile, an exploration station features information on the latest research findings in the area and places the topic in its cultural-historical context.

Hydropower in the Alps and its Impact

The 1950s saw a sharp rise in electricity demand, including in Switzerland. Dams started to be built in the Alps on a grand scale. Once-in-a-generation projects, such as the Grande Dixence dam, as well as the flooding of the village of Marmorera in 1954 and the Mattmark disaster in 1965, fundamentally changed the lives of people in the Alpine regions.

The video installation examines the economic momentum, recalls the political disputes, and addresses the logistical challenges. Contemporary witnesses describe their experiences with hydropower in the Alps, from the incredible feats of engineering to the harsh working conditions on construction sites.

They describe the expansion of the infrastructure and its impact on the world they lived in. And they look back at the resistance movement that developed against resettlement and at the calls for environmental protection.

The editorial office will be closed from 19 December 2025 to 5 January 2026, thanks you for your interest, comments and suggestions in 2025, and wishes you

Fröhliche Weihnachten  und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Fijne kerstdagen en een voorspoedig en gezond 2026

Un joyeux Noël et une bonne année 2026

Bellas festas da nadal ed ün furtüno 2026

Basel, the Martinskirche

It takes courage to organise an exhibition about ghosts. However, the Kunstmuseum Basel has mastered the art of approaching art from different perspectives.

The exhibition ‘Geister/Ghosts’ offers a historical overview of the phenomenon, beginning with the Romans. For a long time, their existence was not questioned, and literature and artistic representations went hand in hand.

Gabriel  Cornelius von Max (1840-1915),  1892, The Seeress of Prevorst in a Trance (Friederike Hauffe). Collection: National Gallery Prague

Benjamin West depicted the spirit of Samuel from the Bible as a white silhouette, William Shakespeare’s ghosts inspired Heinrich Füssli and William Blake, and the poet Emily Dickinson introduced a devastating ghost into Rachel Whiteread’s hut. Over time, art and culture have constantly offered new forms of expression for ghosts.

Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884), c. 1865, Album of Spirit Drawings. Collection: College of the Psychic Studies, London

It was not until the 19th century that their existence was scientifically questioned. Rationality and technology made the existence of spirits increasingly improbable, just as the first mountaineers of the 18th century demonstrated that there were no monsters at the top of mountains and walkers discovered forests as places of leisure.

Psychology also got involved. The inexhaustible human mind is indeed the cause of the perception of ghosts. Psychiatrist C.G. Jung studied the human mind from this angle.

Although ghosts today appear only as personal experiences, in literature, theatre, cinema or in the form of costumes, there is still significant interest in superstition and the supernatural. Séances and trance meetings are proof of this.

Cornelia Parker (* 1956), PsychcoBarn, 2023, reconstruction of the Bates-Villa from Hitchcock’s movie ‘Psycho’.

Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) receiver, 1968, telepathic session II with William Blake (sender).  Collection Viehof, formerly collection Speck.

The exhibition explores the ghost through literature, cinema, visual arts, psychology and social developments.

Hofstetten (Canton Solothurn)

Some ghosts have even escaped from the museum and found their way to a nearby village!

The museum’s Ghost

The permanent exhibition “Noblesse Oblige! Life at a Château in the Eighteenth Century” is an immersive museum experience that enables visitors to share in the day-to-day life of a noble family in the Vaud region during the Enlightenment, at the end of the Ancien Régime.

The former reception rooms of Château de Prangins, comprising the salon, dining rooms and libraries, have been returned to their former splendour and form the backdrop for the exhibition. Boiserie in its original colours, textiles with lustrous motifs, and faux-marble decorations provide the perfect surroundings for some 600 objects from the era.

The theatre at Hauteville Castle, dating from 1777, which has been preserved and is on display at Prangins, is a very rare ensemble in Europe.

In the 18th century, the theatre was a very popular aristocratic pastime throughout the continent. Following Voltaire’s visit in 1750, many castles around Lake Geneva acquired theatres.

The Huguenot Cannac family, originally from Lyon and settled in Saint-Légier-La Chiésaz on the shores of Lake Geneva, introduced the theatre in Hauteville Castle. In 1777, Pierre-Philippe de Cannac commissioned the Lyon painter Joseph Audibert to paint four theatre sets. The four scenes depict a kitchen, a drawing room, a forest with ruins and a French garden.

Plays by Marivaux (1688-1763) and Molière (1622-1673), as well as those by local authors, were performed there. In Hauteville, near Vevey, the sets were reused at the beginning of the 19th century and then again in the 1920s.

The twenty frames, painted on both sides by Joseph Audibert, a master of trompe-l’œil in Lyon, depict a French garden, a picturesque forest, a bourgeois salon and a rustic bedroom.

After careful restoration, the pieces have been included in the permanent exhibition Décors. Masterpieces from the Collections. Thanks to a unique multimedia display and a stage set, the public can watch excerpts from Le médecin suisse allemand, an 18th-century comedy performed by the Théâtre de Carouge.

(Source: Château de Prangins; Der Schweizerische Verband für Konservierung und Restaurierung SKR)

From October 5, 2025, to January 25, 2026, the Kunstmuseum Mendrisio is organising two complementary monographic exhibitions dedicated to two protagonists of twentieth-century graphic art: the Spaniard Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and the Swiss Markus Raetz (1941-2020).

The project aims to highlight the preference for graphic art of these two figures, who, although very different, made experimentation with copper engraving a fundamental part of their research and art. For both, graphic art was never a secondary form of expression alongside their painting or sculpture.

Two generations side by side, two artists viewed through the lens of their graphic production—a less explored but very fascinating and important area for understanding the complexity of their careers.

The Picasso exhibition Picasso-Bloch A Unique Friendship (eine einzigartige Freundschaft) at the Graphische Sammlung of ETH Zürich complements the exhibition in Mendrisio. It is dedicated to the close friendship between Picasso and the Swiss art collector Georges Bloch (1901-1984).

In the exhibition “Schatzfunde – versteckt, verschollen, entdeckt” (Discovered Treasures – Hidden, Lost, Found), the Historical Museum of Basel traces the most spectacular discoveries in the Basel region. Visitors discover treasures from the Bronze Age to the present day, originating from northwestern Switzerland, Alsace, and southern Baden.

The exhibition begins with a definition: all treasures share the common trait of being valuable objects, intentionally hidden and not retrieved, unlike other archaeological finds. In archaeology, they are also called “hoards”. The exhibition also addresses different aspects of treasure hunting, such as methods, laws, and the motivations of the original owners.

The stories behind the discoveries explore the question of why these valuable objects were once buried, hidden or sunk in the Rhine. Throughout the centuries, the people of the Regio Basiliensis maintained close contact with one another, which is reflected in the numerous treasure finds.  The treasures tell not only of wealth, religion and culture, but also of persecution, war, hardship, suffering, religious practices and crime.

The most famous treasure hunter is perhaps Indiana Jones. Still, in the Basel region, treasure hunting was often an adventure mixed with magic and the invocation of spirits until the 18th century. However, many discoveries were accidental until the development of professional archaeology. The humanists of the 16th century were pioneers, including Basilius Amerbach (1533-1591), who pursued the Roman treasure of Augusta Raurica.

Various discoveries since 2000 and 21 earlier discoveries are presented. The oldest treasure was hidden more than 3,500 years ago. The focus is not only on the treasures themselves, but also on their historical, cultural, and religious context, as well as the often astonishing stories of their discovery.

A highlight is the Roman silver treasure of Kaiseraugst, one of the largest in Europe. The objects represent nearly 60 kilograms of silver.

The silver hoard of Kaiseraugst

The exhibition begins with discoveries from the Bronze Age (2200-800 BC) in Habsheim (the bronze hoard), Biederthal (bronze axes), in the Rhine (river finds from the Bronze Age), in Basel (the bronze hoard of Elisabethenschanze), followed by the Iron Age (Celtic, 800-30 BC), with hoards in Saint-Louis (the gold treasure of Saint-Louis), Füllinsdorf (the Celtic treasure), Basel (the discovery of the Basel gas factory. With more than two million finds, this ancient Celtic site is an archaeological hotspot), Nunningen (the Celtic coin hoard), and Reinach (the conical-necked vase).

Reinach, the Reinach sherd carpet comprises more than 70,000 fragments, including 164 pieces of a conical neck vessel, 800–620 BC.

The Roman period (52 BC – 476 AD) is of course dedicated to Augusta Raurica (the inscribed plaques, the large bronze hoard, and the silver treasure of Kaiseraugst), but also to the legionary camp of Vindonissa (the cult hoard), the fountain statue from the Roman estate of Munzach, and the statuettes of Waldenburg.

Augst, the Dolphine, 2nd.century BC.

The Middle Ages up to the modern era (1050-1800) present discoveries in Basel (the coin pots of Nadelberg), Colmar (the Colmar treasure), Oberschopfheim (the silver coins), and Ammerschwihr (the Trois-Épis treasure).

Even in modern times (from the 19th to the 21st century), there are hidden and discovered treasures. The exhibition presents, among others, the bells of the chapel of Angenstein Castle, the treasure discovery of Läufelfingen, the raids of an art thief, and treasures sunk in the Rhine.

The interactive and well-documented exhibition can be visited until June 28, 2026 and there are still hidden hoards.

Impressions from the exposition

Treasure hunting, magic and superstition, including criminal trials until the 18th century

Saint Christopher, patron saint of treasure hunters

More than 100 years ago, the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Basel was officially founded. Shortly thereafter, the pharmacist and professor of practical pharmacy, Prof. Dr Josef Anton Häfliger, assembled a scientific collection of objects related to the history of pharmacy.

This collection laid the foundation for the Pharmacy Museum (Pharmaziemuseum der Universität Basel), which is celebrating its anniversary this year. The current exhibition addresses the history of the museum and its collection within the existing permanent exhibition.

Detail from the brochure of the Pharmaziemuseum der Universität Basel

Instead of a craft, pharmacy had become a scientific discipline by the mid-19th century, and the production of medicines moved to factories. The exhibition also examines the interaction between the academic collection, the history of science, business and the interest of a profession in preserving its identity.

In 1979, the Neuchâtel Museum of Art and History (le Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel) received a significant donation from James Adolphe Yvan Amez-Droz (1888-1976).  Yvan Amez-Droz purchased a collection of paintings, drawings, prints, books, and objets d’art in Paris, where he was based. By donating the modern part of this collection, the art lover wishes to show his affection for Neuchâtel, his family’s birthplace.

Named “The Yvan and Hélène Amez-Droz Bequest” by the donor’s wishes to associate his name with that of his sister, the collection comprises 69 works: 45 paintings, 18 drawings, two monotypes, and four sculptures.

It combines a range of French artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from open-air painting to the early École de Paris.

The collection centres on the famous Impressionist artists Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Auguste Renoir. The exhibition ‘Courbet, Monet, Renoir…..Focus Provenance’ also highlights the fertile artistic period that preceded the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century.  It includes works by representatives of Realism (Gustave Courbet) and Art Nouveau, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Hodler. A model for Swiss Art

In another room is the exhibition ‘Hodler. A model for Swiss art’ (Hodler. Un modèle pour l’art suisse).

Celebrated from Paris to Vienna, and compared to Paul Cézanne, Gustav Klimt and Auguste Rodin, he was one of the most recognised painters at the dawn of the First World War.

In Switzerland, he made a decisive contribution to artistic modernity, acting as a role model, a driving force and also a repellent.

Hiking is the most popular sport in Switzerland. People have always travelled on foot. The exhibition (Hiking Moves) in the Gelbe Haus in Flims invites visitors to view hiking from different perspectives.

What do I need to pack in my rucksack to be prepared for all eventualities on the trail? What does walking teach us about paths and pastures? How does climate change affect my route? Looking to the future, experts discuss the challenges of the present and consider how hiking will be possible in the future.

There is a special focus on the Flims-based architect Rudolf Olgiati (1910–1995). He was a keen observer and commentator on his surroundings. On his walks through the village and the canton, he constantly commented on the landscape, settlement structures and buildings, as well as their interaction.

His observations can be understood as a school of vision. When walking through the built cultural landscape of Graubünden, with Rudolf Olgiati in mind, there is still much to discover and decipher today.

Red Socks (die roten Socken) are a Swiss hiking tradition