Agenda

The photographer Michel Darbellay (1936-2020) pursued one goal: to make people discover and appreciate the diversity of (Canton of) Valais. During his 50-year career he photographed Valais in every possible way: on foot, on skis, on motorbikes, in cars, in helicopters and in aeroplanes.

He was a man of the field, with an eye for the changes of and in nature, the seasons, the rituals, variations in colour and atmosphere, the villages, towns and people.

The exhibition shows more than 200 photos of landscapes and reports. They are accompanied by film clips.

The exhibition (La Maison imaginaire) brings together the artistic disciplines of cinema, painting, ceramics and poetry.

Three artists, the painter Uwe Wittwer (1954), the ceramist Aiko Watanabe (1898-1956) and the poet Jürg Halter (1980) share their artistic practices and points of view from the same source of inspiration: Kenji Mizoguchi’s (1898-1956) 1953 Japanese culinary film The Tales of the Wave after the Rain Moon (in Japanese: “Ugetsu monogatari”).

The film tells the story of a potter and his family in the 16th century. Uwe Wittwer, Aiko Watanabe and Jürg Halter each express their personal and artistic vision in the film.

A second exhibition by Uwe Wittwer, Les Écrins de la colère shows the dialogue between his works painted on glass plates and German porcelain parrots from the 18th and 19th centuries, the exotic luxury goods of European princes and kings.

The source of inspiration is also a cinema, a film by Werner Herzog (1942) Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

The exhibition brings Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and Hans Arp (1886–1966) into dialogue, the late 19th-century sculpture’s great reformer and the major protagonist of 20th-century abstract sculpture.

Both artists displayed exceptional artistic inventiveness and enthusiasm for experimentation. Their works left a deep imprint on their times and retain their full relevance to this day.

The sculptural milestones created by Auguste Rodin and Hans Arp provide remarkable illustrations of fundamental aspects in the development of modern sculpture.

The exhibition of around 110 works takes as its starting point Arp’s 1938  Automatische Skulptur (Automatic Sculpture, Homage to Rodin) and his 1952 poem Rodin – tributes to the great precursor.

The exhibition shows iconic works such as Rodin’s Thinker and Kiss as well as Arp’s Ptolemy and Torso, and lesser-known works, including reliefs by Arp and drawings and collages by both artists.

Impasse Ronsin, a street in the heart of the Montparnasse district of Paris, was a unique artists’ settlement and known for over 100 years as a place of art, contemplation, conversation, celebration, innovation, creation and destruction.

The Impasse Ronsin existed as an artists’ settlement in the Montparnasse district of Paris from 1886 to 1971, and was characterised by a diversity of artistic identities that were by no means merely avant-garde, but rather characterised an extremely broad spectrum, with artists ranging from Constantin Brâncusi, Max Ernst, Marta Minujín, Eva Aeppli, Niki de Saint Phalle and Larry Rivers to André Almo Del Debbio and Alfred Laliberté.

The exhibition presents over 50 artists with more than 200 works, all created in this magical place.

Agostino Carracci (1557-1602) and Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) were the leading engravers of the late 16th century , one in Italy and the other in the Netherlands.

The two artists have never before been confronted in an exhibition. For, in addition to their success as engravers, there are further parallels: both were interested in literature and art theory, and each of them founded an academy.

Independently of one another, they both discovered the illusionistic potential of lines that swell and taper and made an important contribution to the development of the engraving technique, paving the way for the print of the baroque era.

The exhibition draws the parallels in their lives and seeks the points of interaction between them. The entire thematic spectrum of their work is presented, from devotional images to portraiture to erotic images.

The exhibition (Katja Aufleger. Gone) brings together works from the past decade: breakable sculptures, hazardous chemicals and video works.

With transparent materials such as glass, plastic, and coloured liquids, but also immaterial components like sound and movement Katja Aufleger (1983) develops fragile installations and films.

At first glance, the objects seem familiar and appealing, but on closer inspection, it becomes clear that the works are inhabited by uncertain or even dangerous tensions.

Before becoming a world-famous director of films Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) started his career as a photographer. The exhibition shows his works from this period.

The young Kubrick roamed the streets of New York, camera in hand, documenting post-war America.

It was street photography that interested him, observing the real world and people in particular. Photography was the medium by excellence to represent the contemporary world and its latest events.

The magazine Look asked him to cover a wide variety of topics. He was interested in all aspects of New York life. He learned to see life through a camera lens, he observed human interactions, developed stories through images and learned to work as a team. This experience helped him build his vision and proved particularly useful when he decided to embark on a career as a filmmaker.

The exhibition depicts how Switzerland came to be over a period of 550 years. The tour through the centuries begins in the late Middle Ages and ends with the challenges facing democratic institutions in the present. The exhibition illustrates the journey from a confederation of states to a federal state as a struggle for identity and also examines the contemporary history

Martin Disler (1949-1996) was a draughtsman, painter, sculptor and poet. In his art, he reflects on the vulnerability of human existence. The exhibition (Theater des Überlebens. Martin Disler – die späten Jahre) focuses on the last ten years of his career and relates his paintings and sculptures from this period to the work of Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938.

The exhibition shows some of the large bronze figures and his paintings, canvases of large format with acrylic paint and clearly recognizable motifs. They resemble The Scream (Skrik in Norwegian) by Edvard Munch (1863-1944). The elementary power of expression and his fascination for physicality are manifested in the various techniques.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the work of Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) and his status as a great German-speaking writer will be commemorated. The exhibition (Kosmos Dürrenmatt) focuses on his  (late) prose  (the Stoffe) and on his theatre work in the Schauspielhaus in Zurich. Dürrenmatt did not become a pastor like his father. However, the stories from the Old Testament and the Greek legends from his childhood have shaped his work throughout his life. During the exhibition, the complete works of Friedrich Dürrenmatt will be read out and made visible.