Agenda

The Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1884-1980) lived on or near Lake Geneva for much of his long life, from 1953 until his death he resided in Villeneuve. The Oskar Kokoschka Foundation manages his legacy and owns more than 2,300 works of art, paintings, watercolours, drawings and almost all lithographic works. Besides, the foundation has a significant collection of objects and archives. A new permanent exhibition in two rooms of the museum Jenisch presents works by this artist and his artistic development. There is also a space for temporary exhibitions about his art and his life.

Amuse-bouche. The Taste of Art is the third art experiment at the museum, entering the world of the human senses. These play an essential role in the experience of art. This show focuses on the sense of taste and poses the question: Does art taste sweet, sour, bitter, salty, or even umami? What role does our sense of taste play as an artistic material and in our social interactions? The exhibition presents works by some forty-five international artists from the baroque to the present that explore the sense of taste as a dimension of aesthetic perception. In traditional accounts of the senses, the taste is predicated on direct physical contact. The exhibition poses various questions concerning the many fields of taste-related experience. Some of the works on display can even be tasted during special guided tours and performances. 

The exhibition (Aux Sources du Moyen Âge) presents the (cultural) richness and (ethnic) diversity of the period from Late Antiquity to the year 1000 in present-day French-speaking Switzerland or la Romandie. It covers the cantons of Valais, Vaud and Geneva, as well as parts of the cantons of Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Jura. The six centuries after Roman times are the eras of the Burgundians, the Alamans and the Franks and their (forgotten) kingdoms. However, this time has been decisive for the (linguistic, cantonal and cultural) development of present-day Switzerland. Migrations, the development of writing and (French) language, leisure, burial customs, art, culture, monastic life and political developments bring this period to the fore. In any case, this time was not as ‘dark’ as is often thought.