"The cradle of the confederation" Chamber of the Swiss national Council by Charles Giron (1859-1914), 1901.
Photograph: www.parlament.ch.

Swiss Culture and History in European perspective

Agenda

This section contains an overview of the most relevant exhibitions in Switzerland and neighbouring regions. Each item is connected to the organizing museum.

The Prix Art Humanité


Poster of the exhibition 'Concerned', Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, Geneva

Geneva is the global capital of humanitarian action. What impact does that have on the work of artists who trained here? And more generally, can art help us to better understand humanitarian issues?

Since 2015, the annual Prix Art Humanité has provided answers to those questions. The prize is awarded to artists or designers whose work refl ects the most important principle of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement: humanity.

The artists featured here were all contestants for the prize. Humanity is at the heart of all their work, though in very different ways. They highlight social issues, question the norms that govern our relationship to ourselves and others.

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David Salle, Spilled Fruit, 2000, Würth Collection, Inv. 17793 © 2021 David Salle / ProLitteris, Zurich

The exhibition that has been shown in similar compilation at the Kunsthalle Würth in Schwäbisch Hall presents newly acquired pieces of contemporary art since the 1960s.

It treads new paths in the collection’s structure and emphasizes and deepens existing strengths.

The exhibition shows a vast variety of international artists who were especially influential in the 1980s and 1990s. US artists, among them old masters like John Baldessari, Sam Francis, Peter Halley and David Lynch make up a large part of the exhibition.

Others, such as David Salle and Frank Stella, are proof of the great variety of artistic approaches from the USA that were spilling over to Europe.

They add new features and surprising highlights to the Würth Collection.

The German artists Gerhard Richter, Neo Rauch, Jörg Immendorff and Markus Lüpertz complement the exhibition.

Flying High in Thurgau


Gustav Mesmer, Adlerflügelfahrrad mit aufgesetztem Drachendeck, um 1980, Foto: Stefan Hartmaier, © Gustav Mesmer Stiftung

People tried to imitate the flight of insects and birds from ancient times onwards.

In the exhibition (Über den Wolken – Anleitungen zum Aufheben) the dream of flying takes shape in very different ways: angels, birds, paragliders, and stories about the desire to take off and float away, becoming pads for metaphorical ascents, philosophical flights of fancy or small everyday escapes.

Sometimes the dream of flying is almost as beautiful as its fulfilment.