Agenda

The exhibition “proud walls” thematizes the relationship of Richard Wagner to architecture.

The exhibition is based on the recently published book ” M. Kiesel, Chr. Bührle, J. Mildner, Proud Walls – Wagner Sites in Zurich, Lucerne, Tribschen and Venice, Regensburg 2020″ (Prachtgemäuer – Wagner-Orte in Zürich, Luzern, Tribschen und Venedig).

For the first time, all of Richard Wagner’s residences are described in detail. In the Hotel Schweizerhof in Lucerne in 1859 Wagner completed his work Tristan.

He lived in nearby Tribschen from 1866 to 1872 in today’s Richard Wagner Museum.

His place of residence in Zurich is also illuminated with a view to Wagner’s development in the history of music.

Venice inspired the composer in a special way, but the city was his place of death as well.

The museum presents the topics of fairy tales, myths, legends, fables and sagas, which form a fundamentally important part of every culture and its collective memory.

The exhibition pursues themes that course through the narratives of people from different cultures. These themes start deep in prehistory and spread at an early stage.

They unfold in the myths, sagas, fables, legends of antiquity and lead into the world of the European fairy tales, which were initially handed down only orally.

The world of Liechtenstein sagas is also showcased. The influence of these literary genres has shaped art for millennia.

The narrative elements and narrative structures passed down in the stories can also be found in the modern world of fantasy narratives and films.

Two of the great masters of modern art meet in this exhibition in the Reinhart am Stadtgarten building: James Ensor (1860 – 1949) and Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973).

The two artists are juxtaposed under the leitmotif of the masquerade. The mask as object and symbol, the disguise as a game with identity and staging are central questions of artistic creation for Ensor and Picasso.

While Picasso came to Cubism through his study of African masks as cult objects, Ensor is considered the painter of masks par excellence. Early on, the mask appeared as a source of inspiration to both of them and left its mark on their respective works.

These artistic appropriations are complemented by the interest of jugglers and actors: the spectacle of the circus with Picasso, the ritual of carnival with Ensor. Based on drawings and prints and selected paintings and sculptures, a dialogue between the two artists emerges.