Agenda

What do the Swiss laugh about, and what do others find funny about us? These are just two of the questions raised in the exhibition “Made in Witzerland” on a journey through the world of humour, wit, and satire. The multimedia exhibition takes a differentiated look at the funny side of Switzerland – featuring 19th-century caricatures, modern cartoons, and famed Swiss comedians. There are show clips In the TV lounge from popular Swiss comedy series and movies.

«Made in Witzerland» also addresses everyday humour, Swiss stereotypes and clichés, as well as socially and politically improper jokes. At the same time, it explores differences between male and female humour and looks at how children view and deal with irony and situational humour, all trenchantly presented in a surprising scenography.

The art treasures of the bishopric of Chur can be admired in the museum (Domschatzmuseum) after a long renovation. The collection consists of about 200 objects, 70 of which are on display in the current exhibition. In addition to religious objects, various secular objects, such as a sword, are also on display . They show the secular power of the bishop. The bishopric was powerful until the Reformation and played a prominent political role in Graubünden and far beyond. The famous Totentanz (Dance of Death) from 1543 can also be seen in the basement of the museum.

The French artist Guillaume Bruère (1976) shows his portraits and sculptures in the castle of Tarasp (Schloss Tarasp). The focus of the exhibition (What Trembles and Almost Dances) is on the ‘Memory-Drawings’ that he has been making since 2016. Bruère does not paint intimacy, but concentrates on the process and presents the development to the viewer. The portraits sometimes show several faces. The clay sculptures with the same theme further enhance the effect of the portraits.

Alongside her work as a photojournalist, Monique Jacot (1934) has been using the technique of Polaroid transfers to paper since the 1980s. These poetic images, seemingly captured from a dream, blend superimposed and duplicated motifs in delicate and vibrant variations of colour. Her research pushes her towards an aesthetic of contemplation, detail and matter. The heliograms are monochrome explorations of feather and nest motifs picked up at random on her travels. The manifestation of an introspective gaze that marries aesthetic elegance with existential reflection are the outcome of experiments that are part photogram and part heliogravure.

Two exhibitions took place in the Städtische Galerie zum Strauhof in Zurich in 1975 and 1980: “Frauen sehen Frauen” and “Saus und Braus”. Original works, archive material and film footage follow the impulses that set Zurich in motion culturally around 1980. The exhibition shows how and by whom such a cultural break with the past was possible. Women played a leading role in this cultural revolution.

In 1470 the canon Helias Helye (1400-1475) printed the book “Mammotrectus super Bibliam” by the Italian Franciscan monk Johannes Marchesinus in his printing house in Beromünster. The book has six hundred pages and is a textbook for the understanding of the Bible. The book also contains a date, making it the first printed book with date of production in Switzerland. On the occasion of this anniversary, the three Beromünster cultural institutions, the Schlossmuseum, the Haus zum Dolder and the Beromünster Abbey are organising various events in the field of printing, books, paper and writing. As the former location of the printing house, the Schlossmuseum focuses on the production of books and the functioning of the (reconstructed) printing house.

The exhibition (Ruines et pixels. Photographie et céramique contemporaines) brings together the works of twelve Swiss artists in the field of ceramics and photography. The exhibition aims to demonstrate their similarities and differences between the materiality of ceramics and the immateriality of photography. The difference between clay and pixels. Ceramics are thousands of years old, photography is relatively new (nineteenth century). What are the motives, motivation and inspiration of the artists ? In this interesting and original perspective, the cultural centre juxtaposes these two art forms.

For more than 160 years, archaeologists have been investigating the role and meaning of moon horns, the mysterious objects in present-day Switzerland and other Alpine countries from the late Bronze Age between 1000 and 800 BC. Also the exhibition ‘Monddhörner Rätselhafte Kultobjekte der Bronzezeit‘ does not answer this question due to the lack of written and oral sources. Perhaps they were only cultural objects or religion and spirituality played a role. For the first time, however, this exhibition presents a fine selection of original finds from Switzerland and introduces the diversity of moon horns. They owe their name to the sickle-shaped moon shape and the two horn tops.

In 1939, strange sculptures appeared on the Paris antiquities market. Josef Müller (1887-1977), the founder of the collection of the Barbier-Müller museum in Geneva, acquired about twenty of them. Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) discovered them in 1945. He was fascinated by these creations and baptized them “Barbus Müller”, probably after the beard that certain pieces sport and the name of Josef Müller.. He published them in a small leaflet, which contains the founding text on his concept of Art Brut.

Nothing was known about these statues. Various provenances were attributed to them over time, including the Americas and Oceania.  Thanks to a study the identity of the sculptor has been revealed: Antoine Rabany (1844-1919) from Chambon-sur-Lac, in the department of Puy-de-Dôme. Between 1907 and 1919 he is said to have produced a total of about fifty pieces. He started as an autodidact in 1907. Nowadays these statues are worth up to 50 000 euros each.

Assembling some twenty Barbus from its own collection and from private and public lenders, the exhibition (Les Barbus Müller-leur énigmatique sculpteur enfin démasqué) juxtaposes them with works from faraway cultures selected from its collections, in order to assess the resemblances and differences.

Although it is said that the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) settled the frontiers of Switzerland, Austria and Switzerland stubbornly disputed control of twenty square kilometres in an area around the village Tschlin in Graubünden. The Austrian emperor’s commitment and compromise finally led to the solution in 1868 and the last major border adjustment of Swiss territory. The exhibition tells this fascinating, but forgotten story. With the creation of the border, smuggling also arose. Swiss, Austrians and Italians continued this trade well into the 20th century. The exhibition presents typical contraband goods and smuggling equipment.