Agenda

Over three years, 38 museums from France, Germany and Switzerland developed exhibitions on the Rhine in the Museums Network.

The project is the largest Rhine project since Johann Gottfried Tulla (1770-1828) and his Rhine regulation and correction of 1817. The exhibition “Lebensader: Rheim im Wandel” (Lifeline: The Rhine in Transition) highlights the local and regional importance of the Rhine.

The Rhine was once a branching stream with sandbanks and reed beds. Industrialisation, Rhine harbours and its development into a central traffic route have changed the river.

Peter Birmann (1758-1844), the Rhine near the Isteiner Klotz, (19th century) Kunstmuseum Basel

For many, however, the Rhine remained a romantic place of longing, as Rhine motifs from the municipal art collection show. The Rhine has always been an ambivalent habitat: it is threatened by man and is considered a threat.

Neuenburg am Rhein (Germany), 2023

Flood protection, species protection, microplastics, pollution and climate change, are significant issues of the 21st century. The exhibition focuses on problems, challenges, and environmental protection projects in Weil am Rhein and the region.

The Fondation revisits the work of Nabi master Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940), seen through the lens of Japanese art. Centred on the delicate landscape held at the Hermitage, La Maison de Roussel à La Montagne (1900), the exhibition shows the influence of Japanese art on Vuillard’s work.

The artist was a great collector of ukiyo-e prints, in which he found formats hitherto unknown in Europe. Around a hundred paintings and engravings of everyday life and nature scenes, created by Vuillard between the 1890s and the First World War, will be shown here in dialogue with some fifty Japanese masterpieces.

The great exhibition of Japanese art of 1890 at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris fostered his interest in Japanese aesthetics. While all the Nabi painters appreciated Japanese art, Vuillard collected the greatest number of prints, acquiring 180.

In 1890-1914 Vuillard’s paintings, drawings and lithographs were deeply imbued with references to Japanese art. He enriched his art by freely adopting Japanese codes, which offered him entirely new formats, viewpoints and asymmetrical compositions.

The exhibition will be organised around the different genres in which Vuillard worked, seen through Japanese aesthetics. A group of paintings by Vuillard’s Nabi friends, including Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Élie Ranson and Félix Vallotton, who were also influenced by Japanese art, are also on display.

The exhibition (Evaporating Suns. Contemporary Myths from the Arabian Gulf) considers an approach of corresponding positions highlighting the spectrum between myth and fact.

The title originates from the contradiction ‘evaporating’, the change process from liquid to gas. The sun is the permanent, unchanged factor, the source of life.

The spectrum is introduced via the stories passed through oral histories between generations. The Arabian Sea defines the geographical boundaries of the Arabian Gulf and points to various cultural nuances shared across the peninsula.

The title and the exhibition aim to introduce an unorthodox landscape, a new composition created by modifying and fusing the surrounding realities, highlighting the pull between myth and fact.

Abdullah AlOthman, (1985), The Legend of Zahwa. Commissioned by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G.

Its manifestation has been presented in the exhibition through expressions of local natural and built environments, social arrangements and structures and perspective negotiations.

The Fact becomes the framework that dissolves and demystifies. Myth plays a formative role in understanding the law of time and the changes marked through its passing in relation to place.

Alaa Edris (1986), Al Kursi (the Chair). Commissioned by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G.

François Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778), Jacques Necker (1732-1804), Charles-Jules Guiguer (1780-1840), William Beckford (1760-1844), Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), Katharine McCormick (1875-1967) and Bernie Cornfeld (1927-1995) are amongst the well-known figures who have lived or stayed at Château de Prangins (canton of Vaud), one of the three national museums of the country.

Other residents of the castle were the members of the Moravian Brethren, one of the oldest protestant organisations, founded in 1457, long before the statements of Martin Luther in 1517!

They lived in the castle between 1873 and 1920. They were a Christian community originally from Bohemia and Moravia (present-day Czech Republic). From 1739 onwards, they established themselves in German-speaking Switzerland to escape the catholic Habsburg rule. 1873 they moved to Château de Prangins, remaining there until 1920. Their history is one of the fascinating stories of the exposition.

The exhibition ‘Galérie des portraits’. Copyright: ©Musée national suisse

In the large hallway on the first floor, these former inhabitants reappear to surprise visitors and recount anecdotes. Historically, the gallery of a stately home links separate wings together and acts as a place of transition between different spaces.

Often sizeable, it became somewhere to stretch one’s legs or walk around when the weather was terrible. Since it was an area that everybody had to pass through, it was frequently used to hang family portraits for all to gaze at. These former functions are respected but addressed in a contemporary way.

Bringing together the above individuals from the past, this permanent exhibition (Portrait Gallery) also sets out to recreate the castle’s sense of place or soul, shaped by all those who lived, wrote, dreamed, wept, studied or collected there. In an interactive presentation, visitors will learn about the lives and stories of these personalities in their historical context.

The exhibition ‘Galérie des portraits’. Copyright: ©Musée national suisse

Calligrapher and illuminator craftsmen of the Middle Ages copied, illustrated and safeguarded crucial texts from antiquity to their times. Covering topics ranging from science to canonical law, music or world history, they allow us access to knowledge that would have otherwise escaped us.

The efforts of these men reach far beyond content: the precise, meticulous illustrations, drawn with quill or brush, applying colours based on natural pigments or gold leaf, are treasures beautiful beyond description.

Today, celebrating the 15^th birthday of the e-codices project, the Martin Bodmer Foundation and the Abbey Library of St. Gall pay homage to these artists, custodians of this indispensable and rich heritage.

Digital operators preserve and continue their work by selecting the most impressive illuminated manuscripts from its vaults and fifteen Swiss libraries.

The exposition ‘illuminated manuscripts kept in Switzerland’ (Trésors enluminés de Suisse) gives an overview of the extensive collection in Switzerland.

The Constitution of Switzerland is 175 years old and dates from 1848. Switzerland was the only nation in Europe with a liberal constitution in 1848. The Federal Constitution resulted from only 51 days of negotiation between February and April 1848. After the votes and referendums in the cantons, the Tagsatzung (the assembly of the representatives of the cantons)  put the Consitution into force on 12 September 1848; although not all cantons agreed, the majority had decided.

The National Council or First Chamber (Nationalrat) and the Council of States, Second Chamber or Senate (Ständerat) were elected, and the first government  (Bundesrat) was chosen. Switzerland became a democratic republican island amidst monarchies.

Facsimile of the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation, Bern, 12.9.1848. The original is in the Federal Archives in Bern.

In the autumn of 1847, Switzerland was still a loose republic in a civil war. What followed was no miracle but the result of pragmatism, realism, a willingness to compromise, centuries of federal cooperation, confrontation, conflict and solutions. International orientation was also important: the Declaration of Human Rights of the French Revolution (1789) and the American Constitution (1786). Moreover, Europe was in turmoil in 1848, and the interventionist monarchies of Prussia and Austria were preoccupied with themselves.

Bettina Eichin (1942). The human rights, 1998 – 2000. The Bronze Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776, the Franse Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen of 1789 and the Déclaration des Droits de la Femme et de la Citoyenne of 1791, written by Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) © Schweizerisches Landesmuseum. Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Bundesamt für Kultur.  Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Bundesamt für Kultur

At the same time, the Federal Constitution was constantly being developed by the citizens and the cantons after 1848. They are the sovereigns of the country. Social change and political conflicts led to several constitutional revisions.

While the federal state was still a representative democracy in 1848, it became a direct democracy with the introduction of the optional referendum in 1874 and the right of initiative in 1891. In 1971, women were also granted full civil rights.

Since 1974, the European Convention on Human Rights has significantly influenced Swiss law. More recent fundamental rights, such as the protection of privacy or the right to a fair trial, found their way into the Federal Constitution with the total revision of 1999.

The exhibition ‘Happy you have rights day. 175 Years of the Federal Constitution’ (Zum Geburtstag viel Recht. 175 Jahre Bundesverfassung) takes visitors on a tour of 175 years of the Federal Constitution, focusing on fundamental and civil rights.

In four interactive parts, visitors can explore the path to citizenship, the limits of freedom of expression, the protection of privacy or the right to a fair trial. The Federal Constitution is more than a document: it is part of the Swiss way of life.

The exhibition starts with the bronze sculpture ‘Menschenrechte’ (Human Rights) by Bettina Eichin and the animated film ‘Constituzia’ (Constitution) about the time before 1848, followed by the founding period 1848-1891, fundamental rights in the present and contemporary history 1971-1999.

(Source: Landesmuseum Zurich and the publication 175 Jahre Bundesverfassung. Zum Geburtstag viel Recht. This publication is also available in French, Italian and Romansh (Landesmuseum Zürich, Sandstein Verlag, 2023).

PS: See also The Landsgemeinde and the exhibition in the Nidwalder Museum: Ja, Nein, Weiss nicht. Musterdemokratie Schweiz ?

National Celebration Day after 1848. Collection: Landesmuseum Zurich 

The Napoleon Museum Arenenberg and the (museum) Island of Mainau GmbH and partners are organising the exhibition Grüne Fürsten am Bodensee (Green Princes on Lake Constance).

The focus is on personalities who shaped the history of gardening in Europe in the nineteeth century through their parks and innovations: Prince Nicholas II Esterházy (1765-1833) on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance and Prince c.q. Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873) on Arenenberg (Canton of Thurgau) on Lake Constance and in Paris.

Exhibitions at the Nature Museum Thurgau, the Archaeology Museum Thurgau and the Museum Ittingen show further aspects of garden and landscape design and use in this period of the 19th century.

The occasion for the exhibition is the 150th anniversary of the year of death of French Emperor Napoleon III, who grew up on Lake Constance, and the 190th anniversary of the year of death of Prince Nicholas Esterházy.

The exhibitions on the Arenenberg and the Mainau (Museum) Island are dedicated to these “green” monarchs and their botanical interests and creations and the (early) understanding of the importance of these green oases as public recreation areas and the function of gardens as places of agricultural innovation. 

A lively exchange soon developed between the aristocratic gardeners on Lake Constance. They visited each other and presented the progress of their projects, exchanging botanical experiences, knowledge and plants. The green princes’ gardens and way of life also attracted a scene of writers, artists, researchers and social innovators. 

Franz Xavier Winterhalter (1805-1873), Emperor Napoleon III, 1855. Collection: Arenenberg, Napoleon Museum.

Emperor Napoleon III

The Napoleon Museum focuses on the parks created by Louis Napoleon, the later Emperor Napoleon III, in Arenenberg and Paris. The young Prince Louis Napoleon was instilled with a passion for gardening. His grandmother Empress Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814) set standards throughout Europe by creating her park around the Malmaison chateau near Paris. She made gardening en vogue.

In his exile at Lake Constance in Arenenberg, the prince was also inspired by the interest of his mother, Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837). They developed the park around the Arenenberg castle.

Martin Knoller (1725-1804), Nikolaus II. Esterházy, 1793. Collection: Fürst Esterházy Privatstiftung Eistenstadt.

Nicholas II Esterházy

 It is little known that Nicholas II Esterházy bought the island of Mainau from the state of Baden in 1827. He transformed the park, designed in the Baroque style, into a modern English landscape garden with a network of paths.

Picture: Napoleon Museum Arenenberg.

The Kunstmuseum Bern is showing a major exhibition devoted to Katharina Grosse. The largeformat, vibrantly coloured paintings from the 1980s until the present clearly show the importance of the works on canvas in the artist’s oeuvre.

Colour is central to her artistic practice. She experiments with its physical presence, its sensoryand political potentials and its ability to embody movement. The exhibition enables to take a close look at 42 canvases, from her earliest works in the late 1980s to her most recent works.

The exhibition is organised by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (Washington University in St. Louis, USA) in cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Bern.

Biel/Bienne (canton of Bern) is the only city in Switzerland that is bilingual in the true sense of the word. The road to bilingualism was long, however, from the Romanisation and the Gallo-Roman culture of the originally Celtic region and the dominance of the German language to the bilingual status in 1950.

Author: Marco Zanoli, Wikipedia

The Celts, Romans and Alemanni and Seeland

The linguistic landscape of the region of Seeland and Biel (canton of Bern) was shaped by the incorporation of the present-day Mittelland into the Roman Empire around 15-13 B.C.

As part of the new Gallo-Roman culture, the local population soon also spoke (vulgar) Latin. Over time, Gallo-Roman dialects developed, from which several dialects of today’s French-speaking part of Switzerland emerged, the patois.

The spread of the German language by the Alemanni, who settled in the Mittelland from the end of the 6th century, was decisive, however. The Gallo-Roman and Patois dialects were pushed back and Alemannic reached the Aare at the end of the 8th century.

Between the 9th and 13th centuries, first the region south of Lake Biel and later those on the northern shore became predominantly German-speaking. There was no clear language border. The current Franco-German language border in the Three Lakes region was finally consolidated in the 18th century.

Biel

For more than 700 years, German was the only official language in Biel, but Biel’s elite maintained close ties with French-speaking areas and as early as the Middle Ages, French could be heard in homes, craft workshops and the city hall. Biel early on became a laboratory of bilingualism.

Johann Rudolf Weiss (1846-1939), Biel, 1919. Collection: Neues Museum Biel

The watch industry

In the 19th century, the boom of the watch industry led to a huge immigration from French-speaking Jura. This fundamentally changed Biel’s language landscape. Labour immigration is always one of the main reasons for language change. What makes Biel unique is the political will to upgrade French, and in 1950 French became the second official language and Biel became bilingual.

Collection: Neues Museum Biel

Bilingualism

It was only in 1950 that Biel opted for the official status of bilingualism. However, German and French are not the only languages spoken in Biel. Besides more than 50 other languages, living space also creates identity. Buildings, parks, squares and meeting places create familiarity and a sense of home for the inhabitants of Biel/Bienne.

The exhibition “Biel and the Röstigraben” explores the question of how different cultures live together in the city, where they meet and how they communicate. It shows that centuries-old multilingualism always demands attention to find mutual understanding.

(Source and further information: Neues Museum Biel/Nouveau Musée Bienne).