Agenda

Martin Disler (1949-1996) gained worldwide fame with his visual work, but also retained an uninterrupted passion for writing. In the work of Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) the two art forms are exactly the opposite. His literary works formed the basis of international success; painting was a complement to his literary work. The exhibition shows the etchings and paintings of Martin Disler and works he made for a school in Le Landeron.

The exhibition is the first to show the works of these artists together. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is one of the fathers of modern sculpture. Despite its references to ancient sculpture and mythology, he revolutionized the art. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) gave his creations their universal value. The exhibition highlights the similarities and differences by a thematical approach.

The exhibition presents paintings and other works by Rudolf Stingel (1956) and his approach in a conceptual and self-reflexive manner, exploring its possibilities and media-specific limits through the interplay of artistic strategies, materials and shapes. The show will also present new site-specific works using carpets and insulation panels.

William Kentridge (1955) has won wide international acclaim as a leading contemporary artist working today. The South African visual artist, filmmaker, and stage director has built a sizable oeuvre that spans a broad range of media including animated film, prints and drawings, theatre productions, and sculpture. The exhibition showcases early graphic art and films from the 1980s and 1990s as well as examples of his more recent output, for the first time presented in Europe. The social and political conflicts in South-Africa and Europe are so being dealt with by the artist in this show.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Le Landeron had 17 restaurants/pubs for 1,400 inhabitants, or one establishment for 83 people! The vast majority lived less than 100 meters from a restaurant. Restaurants played an important role in daily life and the exhibition brings this atmosphere in Le Landeron back to life, a mirror of the society of yesteryear, as it applies to many other places.

Clothing has always been protection, decoration as the social sign of identity. Clothing also depicts the contours of the body in the most creative and often complicated way. The exhibition illustrates this history from the 17th to the 21st century through a selection of women’s and men’s clothing and contemporary creations.

Around 200 000 people of 200 different nationalities live in Basel today. The city forms the centre of a large trinational region with a long history. The exhibition presents the major events and historical milestones that have shaped the city and the region. There will be items attesting to key events in the city’s history, objects of everyday use and six short films that open up historical perspectives on contemporary issues such as the influence of immigration and migration, the role of the pharmaceutical industry, the relationship between town and country. There are also interactive installations combining city maps, historical photographs, facts and figures on Basel’s urban and demographic development.

The museum focuses on issues related to global interdependencies. These interdependencies become especially evident when tracing the history of valuable trade goods and their transport routes. Products such as coffee, cocoa, petroleum, opium, sugar, silk, watches and diamonds have had a hand in shaping countries, cultures and societies. The current exhibition discusses the major world exhibitions in London, Paris, Vienna and Chicago in the nineteenth century and their aspirations to subject the world according to Western standards. The stereotypes that grew out of these structures have lives of their own, which continue to resonate to this day. World Exhibition is an attempt to capture these forms through the means of art.

The watch industry traditionally uses posters and advertisements to promote its products. They are the backbone of brand communication in the 20th century. The exhibition offers a view of the economic, technological and cultural history of watchmaking, from the invention of the wristwatch to the technological revolution of the quartz watch. The 200 original sketches, advertisements and documents are designed to give a panoramic view of the history of this communication and consumption.

The exhibition highlights a form of artistic production little known to date, that of Chinese reverse glass painting. The exhibition is exclusively devoted to this art created in China between 1750 and 1950, retracing its long history: from its conception in the 18thcentury with the successful artistic encounter between Chinese painting and that of Europe to its subsequent “globalization” before becoming popular within China. The reverse glass painting was also highly appreciated by the Chinese imperial family and the nobility and attracted the interest of European and American experts in the twentieth century, but is little known to the general public