Agenda

In the exhibition “The Cost of Life”, the British artist Paddy Hartley addresses the risks and opportunities of medicine, medical progress, the patient and scientific research (see also Swiss Spectator Latest News, 12 October 2021, A Courageous, Unique and Topical Exhibition in Basel).

His artistic commentary makes humanity’s efforts to improve health and combat disease directly tangible and topical, even in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The exhibitions are on display at the Tinguely Museum and the Pharmacy Museum of the University of Basel  (Pharmaziemuseum der Universität Basel) in Basel to mark the 125th anniversary of the pharmaceutical company Roche, which initiated the project.

The exhibition at the Tinguely Museum deals with controversial issues in health care using existing and newly created works by Paddy Hartley (see also Swiss Spectator under Latest News, 13 October 2021).

The exhibition at the Pharmaziemuseum places new works by the artist in dialogue with the museum’s collection, particularly ceramics, which has played an essential role in developing the pharmaceutical industry since the 16th century.

The artist introduces more than small ceramics fetuses. The fetuses are up to mischief within the collection and create endearing and humorous contrasts with the historical artefacts.

In 79 AD, the volcano Vesuvius erupted and buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum Stabiae and Oplontis. The exhibition highlights the latest findings from the excavations as well as the natural phenomena from a geological and volcanological perspective.

A prominent eyewitness, Pliny the Elder, guides visitors through the exhibition: he himself perished while trying to save the fleeing people with his military fleet. Well-known original objects from Pompeii and Herculaneum as well as lifelike projections make the exhibition a unique experience.

The exhibition was realised in close cooperation between the Liechtenstein LandesMuseum, the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Expona from Bolzano and Contemporanea Progetti from Florence. The Liechtenstein LandesMuseum is the first stop of this new international touring exhibition.

Be it in furniture design, fashion design, industrial design, or interior design, women have contributed crucially to the development of modern design, both creatively and commercially. The exhibition (Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today) Presents women designers from the past 120 years.

It tells a new story of design against the background of the struggle for equal rights and recognition. Around eighty women in design are showcased in the exhibition, including protagonists of modernism like Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich, and Clara Porset, business leaders like Florence Knoll and Armi Ratia, but also lesser-known figures like the social reformer Jane Addams. Contemporary positions and future outlooks are represented by such designers as Matali Crasset, Patricia Urquiola, Julia Lohmann, as well as the collectives Matri-Archi(tecture) and Futuress.