Antigone and Chalk Fall


Tacita Dean, Chalk Fall, 2018. Courtesy the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery New York/Paris, Frith Street Gallery London

Antigone is complemented by a small collection of works by Tacita Dean (1965) that closely relate to this film, as well as a recent large-scale blackboard drawing, Chalk Fall (2018) and slate works, which include a recent drawing, Cynthia Teeming—Cynthia being a full moon.

The exhibition continues with an installation of a group of short 16mm films shown together for the first time: Ear on a Worm (2017), A Cloud makes itself (2020), Un providence (2018) and LA Magic Hour (2019-2021).

Antigone by Tacita Dean


Fragment Antigone, Kunstmuseum/Gegenwart, Basel.

The Museum hosts the Swiss premiere of Antigone (2018), Tacita Dean’s (b. 1965) most complex work to date.

The presentation of the hourlong, anamorphic 35mm film is contextualized by other films, photographs, photogravures, and chalk drawings of the British-European artist.

Antigone revolves around the name ‘Antigone’ and how it resonates, not only in Greek literary history, but also in the artist’s own life.

Antigone is the name of Dean’s older sister so was one of the first words the artist ever learnt. ‘Antigone’ is also the eponymous heroine in the Theban trilogy of plays by the Greek tragedian Sophocles, which led Dean to intertwine her own story with the mythological cosmic order of classical antiquity.

The central concern in Antigone is blindness: the artist’s own willed blindness and action are prismatically fractured, yielding a panoply of radiant images.

The artist has dedicated herself in the last decade to reusing some of the early visionary techniques of filmmaking that created cinema as we know it and reworking them as a powerful argument for the medium

The screening of Antigone is complemented by a small collection of works by Dean that closely relate to this film, as well as a recent large-scale blackboard drawing, Chalk Fall (2018) and slate works

The exhibition continues with an installation of a group of short 16mm films: Ear on a Worm (2017),  A Cloud makes itself (2020), Providence (2018)  and LA Magic Hour (2019-2021).

Arcadic Nature between Mountain and Lake


The exhibition shows the most beautiful coloured lithographs, gouaches and representations of the large nature reserve between Säntis and the Rhine Falls at the time of its tourist discovery in the early 19th century.

A cooperation project (Idyllen zwischen Berg und See) of the Rosgartenmuseum Konstanz with the Swiss museums Turmhof Steckborn, Volkskundemuseum Stein, Museum Appenzell, Museum Rosenegg, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, Historisches und Völkerkundemuseum St. Gallen, Museum Herisau, vorarlbergmuseum Bregenz and renowned private collectors.

 

Biel 4.0


Photo of the exposition: Patrick Weyeneth, NMB.

Digitalisation, Clouds, Smart Factories and 3D printing: Industry 4.0 is set to revolutionise the world of work. Although these transformations may seem unprecedented, they are, in fact, part of a historical continuum.

Since the 19th century, four revolutions have profoundly transformed work in the industry. In this context, the history of Biel (canton of Bern), an industrial city, is symbolic: the introduction of machines, thermal energy, assembly line work, computers, automation, industrial robots.

During the last three industrial revolutions, each new technology has profoundly changed the way of working.

How have workers positioned themselves in the face of technological change? How has work changed over the four revolutions? How many jobs have disappeared, and what new jobs have emerged?

And, finally, what are the contributions and new challenges of Industry 4.0?

The Artistic Value of Wood


(Nederlands) Jerome Blanc, Aratèle II. Foto: www.jeromeblanc.ch.

L’ Association de l’Espace culturel Assens presents the exhibition Liber. L’essence du bois.

The show brings the works of the artists Chantal Quéhen and Jérôme Blanc together. Both share a passion for wood.

Chantal Quéhen works with ink, collage and engraving. She makes installations and objects and creates unique books about her art speciality. Chantal Quéhen moves her objects of art, poetry and literature. In 2019, she founded the Atelier du Piaf (www.atelierdupiaf.ch), based in Yverdon-les-Bains (Canton of Vaud).

Jérôme Blanc (www.jeromeblanc.ch) is interested in wood, bronze and glass and the illusions generated by various sculptures made of these materials.

Both are worldwide renowned artists.

(Nederlands) 150 jaar Italiaanse immigratie in Lausanne


Poster of the exposition. Le musée historique Lausanne.

From the middle of the 19th century, with the rise of tourism, railways, construction of tunels and other industries, Switzerland became a country of immigration.

Until the (oil) crisis of 1973, millions of Italians lived and worked in the country for short or long periods, including in Canton Vaud and Lausanne in particular.

They profoundly influenced the culture and many other facets of Switzerland.

The ‘italianità’ can be felt in music, food, nightlife, sports, language, cinema, trade, business, and many other areas.

The exhibition (Losanna, Svizzera, 150 ans d’immigration italiènne à Lausanne, 150 years of Italian immigration in Lausanne) puts this immigration of over 150 years into perspective.

The story of Lausanne is symbolic of other cantons, cities and villages in Switzerland.

Animal Farm in Bern


August Gaul, ostrich, 1900 bronze, Kunstmuseum Bern, Loan from the Zwillenberg-Foundation.

The sculptor August Gaul (1869–1921) is considered a pioneer of both animal sculpture as an autonomous genre and modern abstraction. His sculptures depict zoo, domesticated and farm animals as beings with individual character and pulsating liveliness.

Gaul lived in times of drastic transformations Industrialisation and increasing urbanisation from the end of the 19th century onward also affected the relationship between humans and animals.

With more than 250 sculptures, paintings, prints and drawings, photographs and books the exhibition presents his oeuvre in dialogue with contemporary works of art and testimonies from science, and popular culture.

This contextualisation illustrates the modern redefinition of the relationship between human beings and animals, an issue that still has overwhelming relevance today.

The Prix Art Humanité


Poster of the exhibition 'Concerned', Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, Geneva

Geneva is the global capital of humanitarian action. What impact does that have on the work of artists who trained here? And more generally, can art help us to better understand humanitarian issues?

Since 2015, the annual Prix Art Humanité has provided answers to those questions. The prize is awarded to artists or designers whose work refl ects the most important principle of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: humanity.

The artists featured here were all contestants for the prize. Humanity is at the heart of all their work, though in very different ways. They highlight social issues, question the norms that govern our relationship to ourselves and others.

Up for More


David Salle, Spilled Fruit, 2000, Würth Collection, Inv. 17793 © 2021 David Salle / ProLitteris, Zurich

The exhibition that has been shown in similar compilation at the Kunsthalle Würth in Schwäbisch Hall presents newly acquired pieces of contemporary art since the 1960s.

It treads new paths in the collection’s structure and emphasizes and deepens existing strengths.

The exhibition shows a vast variety of international artists who were especially influential in the 1980s and 1990s. US artists, among them old masters like John Baldessari, Sam Francis, Peter Halley and David Lynch make up a large part of the exhibition.

Others, such as David Salle and Frank Stella, are proof of the great variety of artistic approaches from the USA that were spilling over to Europe.

They add new features and surprising highlights to the Würth Collection.

The German artists Gerhard Richter, Neo Rauch, Jörg Immendorff and Markus Lüpertz complement the exhibition.

Flying High in Thurgau


Gustav Mesmer, Adlerflügelfahrrad mit aufgesetztem Drachendeck, um 1980, Foto: Stefan Hartmaier, © Gustav Mesmer Stiftung

People tried to imitate the flight of insects and birds from ancient times onwards.

In the exhibition (Über den Wolken – Anleitungen zum Aufheben) the dream of flying takes shape in very different ways: angels, birds, paragliders, and stories about the desire to take off and float away, becoming pads for metaphorical ascents, philosophical flights of fancy or small everyday escapes.

Sometimes the dream of flying is almost as beautiful as its fulfilment.