Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel 25th anniversary

11 February 2025

The Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel (CDN) will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025. The celebrations will begin on 21 February, and the programme will be gradually unveiled on the CDN website.

The building designed by Mario Botta encompasses Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s home, making it an integral part of the Centre Dürrenmatt, inaugurated in 2000. The CDN exists to unite, preserve, and promote Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s artistic oeuvre.

Exhibitions presenting artists pursuing combined visual and written exploration are regularly mounted here. The CDN, a space devoted to encouraging reflection and the exchange of ideas, schedules colloquiums, lectures, and readings on themes present in Dürrenmatt’s work. The Centre also often hosts concerts.

The exhibition © Photo: Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel/Pino Musi

Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990) was born in German-speaking Switzerland and passed away in French-speaking Neuchâtel. He had lived and worked in that charming city for almost 40 years in the idyllic setting of the Vallon de l’Ermitage, which overlooks the town.

Dürrenmatt’s 1989 bequest of his literary holdings to the Swiss Confederation created the Swiss Literary Archives in Berne. In 1991, the CDN became a unit of the Swiss National Library.

The library © Foto: Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel/Pino Musi

Inspired by Dürrenmatt’s achievements, the CDN promotes an interdisciplinary approach to the relations between literature and the visual arts.

The diversity of its agenda and the scientific support it lends to the Swiss Literary Archives make the Centre a bridge between Switzerland’s French- and German-speaking regions. One may even say the CDN is a bilingual hotspot in the Vallon de l’Ermitage.

(Source and further Information: Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel)