Agenda

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

The combined exhibitions at the Musée paysan et artisanale in La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Moulins souterrains du Col-des-Roches at Le Locle give an impression of the daily life and image of Europe of the inhabitants of the Neuchâtel region in the 17th and 18th centuries. What did they know about the political changes and other countries? The exhibitions are based on writings by five regional authors (Jaques Sandoz, Abram Ducommun, Daniel Sandoz, Abram Louis Sandoz, Abram Louis Sandoz and David Pétremand) between the end of the 17th century and the 18th century. Based on these texts, each exhibition develops different themes for diving into the past. It appears that the inhabitants had their eyes wide open and focused on Europe through reliable and efficient sources of information.

The exhibition (Reliquaire en chantier) offers the opportunity to discover the secrets of a medieval relic. The reliquary of St. Mauritius is one of the most valuable treasures of the abbey. After centuries of use and the ravages of time, a thorough restoration is necessary. It started in 2017, and the upper (silver) layers, many gems and other materials were removed. The exhibition shows the treasure in all its parts and the collaboration between experts in history, iconography, dendrochronology and other sciences. In this way, the biography of this treasure can be illustrated even more clearly concerning the (art) history of the abbey. The abbey was founded in 516 and has been in use without interruption ever since.

The Brüschweiler Archive holds the most important archive of the painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918). The exhibition reveals parts of this archive. A dozen paintings, numerous drawings and documents provide insight into the life and work of this artist and his close relations with the canton of Jura. His oeuvre includes portraits, landscapes, figure and history pieces. During his lifetime he was already recognized as one of the most important painters of the European avant-garde.

April 1979 saw the opening of the Museum of Music Automatons. To mark its 40^th anniversary, the museum is presenting four themes: Music automatons with figures, music boxes, musical souvenirs and Swiss railway station and waiting hall music boxes. They offer a retrospective of forty years of collecting. The name of the anniversary exhibition – by analogy with “Industry 4.0” (i.e. the fourth industrial revolution) – suggests that some content in the museum will be presented via new media, not least in the newly designed ballroom, due to reopen in autumn 2019.

In this exhibition, around 60 corsets from the period 1775 to 1925 will be on display, including unique, tailor-made and exclusive models made of silk satin or cotton in bold colours with beautiful embroideries. These corsets of the collection Nuits de Satin from Paris are almost all unworn and as good as new and give a realistic insight how splendid and elaborate these garments were.

The museum presents a trip to the North- and South Poles and pictures the animal world. The exhibition not only deals with this theme in a classical way, but also offers a reflection on the future of these ecosystems.

The Museum presents Carl Spitteler (1845-1924), the Swiss writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919. To commemorate this centenary, the museum is dedicating an exhibition to it and is taking part in a series of events organised throughout the Bernese Jura this year.

At a time when citizens are mobilising due to climate change, millions of hectares of forest are disappearing every year. To make the consequences understandable for the public, the  Botanical Garden of Neuchâtel presents tropical plants and trees in its greenhouses and in the open air along a route of drawings by the French botanist Francis Hallé (1938).

The exhibition (mémoires vives) is a collaboration with Visarte Fribourg. The exhibition explores the relationship between contemporary art and cultural heritage through selected works from the collection of the Museum of Art and History and L’Espace Jean Tinguely-Niki de Saint Phalle in Fribourg. Can this heritage (still) inspire contemporary art and if so, in what way?