This section contains an overview of the most relevant exhibitions in Switzerland and neighbouring regions. Each item is connected to the organizing museum.
This retrospective exhibition Body Double of the Belgian Pop-Surrealist Evelyne Axell (1935-1972) will present sixty exhibits spanning the broad spectrum of the artist’s entire oeuvre. Body Double brings together a large selection of collages, drawings, relief paintings, sculptures, filmic and photographic works. With her original feminist approach in the 1960s Axell became one of the pioneers of Pop Art in Europe.
The exhibition explores the fundamental theme of human’s place in the universe through a journey in five chapters. With more than 90 works of around 50 artists from all over the world, it follows the previous exhibition Before Time Began that introduced the origins of contemporary Aboriginal art. The show starts with a (dark) night of times immemorial, before the creation of the earth. It starts with Tales of the earth and the skies, then follows with the Power of transformation, the Secrets of Mother Earth and The Origins to the First Being in the fresh daylight. It is all not that different from ancient (European) religions. RESONANCES is to be discovered until April 4th, 2021.
The exhibition in the old soap factory in Lenzburg presents the fascinating world of soaps and fragrances. The industrial posters by Persil, Sunlight, Steinfels & Co. are graphic masterpieces of the last 125 years. High-quality toilet soaps and washing powder were produced in Lenzburg for just over a hundred years. The history of the soap factory founded in 1857 is also discussed. The Icon Museum shows the sacred aspect of purity, in particular the contrast between Russian sacred images and the industrial steel sculptures of James Licini (1937).
The Museum presents a small part of the textile collections of underwear. The underwear tells a lot about fashion and social changes. The exhibition shows more than fifty pieces of underwear from the last two centuries. A cultural-historical approach to the most worn garment.
To begin its anniversary year, the House of Art Zug (Kunsthaus) shows what was a focus of the collection right from the start: Swiss surrealist and fantastic art. The maverick, idiosyncratic aspects of the surreal and fantastic trends in art are what remain attractive about this collection focus, down to the present day. The exhibition (Fantastisch Surreal. Die Sammlung) addresses the different styles of Surrealism.
“A Surrealist exhibition to outdo all others!” That was the aim of the Surrealist exhibition in Paris in 1947, organised by André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Frederick Kiesler. The rooms in which the exhibition was held were part and parcel of its artistic concept. Architecture and art became a unity. The exhibition (André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Frederick Kiesler. Surrealistische Räume 1947) will be recreated in Zug, using some 100 original sketches and photographs. This is the first time it is shown in this concept outside Vienna.
Ruth and Peter Herzog have built one of the most important photography collections, which now encompasses no fewer than five hundred thousand artifacts. It is a photographic encyclopedia of life in the industrial age. Ranging from the early days of the medium, which was invented in 1839, to the 1970s, the collection’s holdings span the complete history of analog photography, reflecting its manifold developments and physical materials.
The first comprehensive presentation in Switzerland showcases four hundred objects. The exhibition spotlights key themes of the collection and addresses questions around the photography collectors’ work and the relation between archive and museum. It also probes the interplay between photography and art.
The exhibition is being created in cooperation with the Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel.
The writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) has left behind an extensive oeuvre of visual art. The exhibition (Dürrenmatt als Zeichner und Maler) shows a representative selection of his graphic works and drawings. His guiding principle is always the tension between myth and science. The formative influence of childhood in the village, Greek mythology and the Christian faith, the lifelong involvement in astronomy and the theory of evolution are always present. The paintings and drawings are embedded in the context of their historical, scientific, theological and ethical references. The exhibition has been produced by Spiez Castle (Schloss Spiez) The Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel is the cooperating partner. Further information:
https://www.schloss-spiez.ch/museum-/-ausstellung-/-sammlung/kunstausstellung/duerrenmatt-2020
In 1912, Alfred de Quervain (1879-1927) travelled across Greenland. The data collected by the Swiss explorer on the seven-week expedition are still of great value for science today. The exhibition examines de Quervain’s pioneering feat in the eternal ice, and links it with the present. Switzerland still carries out glacier research in Greenland, making a significant contribution to one of the most crucial issues of our time: global warming.
Nuns in the Middle Ages were far more than just celibate, ascetic women who only cared about the world inside their convent walls. The convent gave women opportunities that were otherwise hardly available to them: access to higher education, social security and the chance to break away from the conventions of their families. The exhibition (Nonnen in de Middeleeuwen) shows what a wide range of life choices were open to nuns in the Middle Ages.
Especially in the decades after the Second World War, the dream of a home of one’s own came true for many. The majority of private homes at that time were simple and standard, but there are examples that bear witness to the high demands of architectural design. The architects were often given a free hand. They were creative and often found unique solutions. Using examples from the region, the exhibition (Modern Living. Einfamilienhäuser in Basel und Umgebung 1945–1975) traces the cultural, historical and architectural significance of the single-family home after 1945.