Arts CH
Tuesdays at 5:35 pm during The Wrap (repeats Wednesdays at 1:40 pm)
A look at the week in arts and culture with Jennifer Davies, Cristina Foglia, Michèle Laird and Aoife Rosenmeyer:
Arts CH: Zurich theatre festival promises 'edgy,' experimental fareTuesday, 16 August, 2011Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zurich’s annual festival of theatre, dance, music and street entertainment is set to run from Thursday until September 4. Regular contributor Aoife Rosenmeyer previews the eclectic fare expected at this year’s festival. Be prepared for a lot of experimental, “edgy” performances from up and coming artists that you might not see at a regular theatre:
Arts CH: Assessing Locarno's film festival - yesterday and todayTuesday, 9 August, 2011Arts contributor Cristina Foglia talks about the history of the Locarno Film Festival and how a number of directors, such as Ken Loach and Jim Jarmusch, were first discovered there. She also speaks with artistic director Olivier Père, formerly responsible for one of the most interesting sections at Cannes Film Festival. Père says he is pleased with the range of international films, as well as the return of the big Hollywood names:
Arts CH: Volcano expo erupts at Geneva's Natural History MuseumTuesday, 2 August, 2011Geneva’s recently renovated Natural History Museum is mounting a temporary exhibition on super-volcanoes. Visitors can find out how scientists monitor volcanoes through sound, video, models and even areas where you can feel tremors when one erupts. Contributor Jane Seckel enters through the museum’s “lava tunnel” to explore the exhibit:
Arts CH: Glarus museum celebrates urban design fired by city tragedyTuesday, 26 July, 2011An exhibition at the Kunsthaus Glarus commemorates the 150th anniversary of a catastrophic fire that destroyed the city of Glarus and left half the inhabitants homeless. Though tragic, the 1861 disaster allowed for urban reconstruction with a visionary design for the times. Aoife Rosenmeyer visits the art museum and talks to curator Sabine Rusterholz about the exhibition:
Arts CH: Prangins expo displays dazzling Breguet watchesTuesday, 19 July, 2011The Swiss National Museum in the Château de Prangins, close to Nyon, is exhibiting some of the finest and historically important watches in the world. They were produced by renowned 18th century Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), whose masterpieces belonged to the likes of Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon and King George V. Jane Seckel talks about this resplendent exhibit, which comes from the Louvre museum in Paris, and how it exemplifies the art of watchmaking at the highest level:
Arts CH: Getting high on outdoor sculpture amid the Vaud AlpsTuesday, 12 July, 2011Arts contributor Aoife Rosenmeyer discovers a place in Vaud where modern sculptures can be appreciated outdoors. An annual exposition is held at Szilassy Park, overlooking the town of Bex amid dramatic mountain scenery. For the 11th edition of this event, three new curators — Noemie Enz, Pascal Hausermann and Jessica Schupbach — take the reins. Works by well known sculptors were commissioned to fit into this year’s theme, “Territories,” and the local landscape. Rosenmeyer speaks to Enz and Schupbach:
Arts CH: Car fetish drives Museum TinguelyTuesday, 5 July, 2011This year marks the 125th anniversary of the motor car, if you accept that the first petrol-powered vehicle, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, emerged in 1886. So perhaps it’s fitting that the Museum Tinguely in Basel should take an artistic look at the form of transport that has transformed and besotted the modern world. Fetisch Auto (Auto Fetish) is a huge art show that reflects the impact the car had on artists’ imaginations, from futurist paintings to the latter day installation of a Volkswagen Beetle suspended in the air - in pieces. Regular WRS contributor Aoife Rosenmeyer speaks to Roland Wetzel, Museum Tinguely curator, about the exhibition:
Arts CH: Musical giants light up Locarno's 'Moon and Stars' concert seriesTuesday, 28 June, 2011The seventh annual Moon and Stars series of concerts is set to kick off in Locarno. Big-name stars feature in the nine nights of open air concerts on the Piazza Grande, the main square where the Ticino town’s famous film festival takes place. This year’s roster includes Sting, Bryan Adams, Roxette, and veterans such as Joe Cocker and Santana. Amy Winehouse was expected to perform but recently had to cancel a number of dates on her current tour. Arts correspondent Cristina Foglia serves up the details:
Arts CH: Geneva ceramics museum decants 1,001 cupsTuesday, 21 June, 2011The Ariana Museum behind the United Nations building in Geneva is the only museum in Switzerland devoted solely to ceramics and glass works. The Ariana’s new exhibition, called “One Thousand and One Cups,” pays tribute to the humble disposable terra cotta Kulhar cup from northern India. Handle-less and unglazed, it was traditionally thrown away after each use. Ten works from each of the 100 international artists invited to participate, including those by renowned Swiss ceramicist Arnold Annen, show off the amazingly different techniques that can be used to make a simple cup. Arts contributor Jane Seckel takes a tour of this exhibit, which will later travel to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Winterthur:
Arts CH: Navigating around Art Basel's many exhibition hallsTuesday, 14 June, 2011For many art aficionados, Basel is simply an art fair with a small city attached not a city with one of the largest modern art markets in the world. The main Art Basel fair is like a condensed art history degree where every major artist from the last 150 years can be found. In the Art Statements halls, up and coming galleries each showcase one artist in their booths. In Art Unlimited, you can find large-scale works, sometimes too big to fit in conventional spaces. Aoife Rosenmeyer offers an overview of this huge annual event and how to tackle it:
Arts CH: Lugano's Martha Argerich Project pays tribute to LisztTuesday, 7 June, 2011Arts correspondent Cristina Foglia talks about the Martha Argerich Project, one of the major musical festivals of the year in Lugano, in the canton of Ticino. This event, which kicks off on Wednesday and runs until June 30, showcases talented young artists in residence, chaperoned by the great Argentinian pianist herself. This year, on the 200th anniversary of his birth, the programme is devoted to Franz Liszt:
Arts CH: Geneva's Museum Rath glories in abstract worksTuesday, 31 May, 2011A wave of non-figurative, abstract paintings in Europe between 1946 and 1962 was the product of a little-known art movement but one that includes dynamic works. A retrospective show at the Museum Rath in Geneva features 101 of these works and looks at how the interior world of artists was portrayed in that era. Arts contributor Jane Seckel has more:
Arts CH: Lucerne collector shares passion for modern Chinese artTuesday, 24 May, 2011Collector Urs Meile fell in love with Chinese art on a trip to visit his friend Uli Sigg, the former Swiss ambassador to China. Since then, Galerie Urs Meile has become the destination of a modern-day silk road for contemporary art. The gallery has a base in Lucerne and one in Beijing, designed by Ai WeiWei, the artist still imprisoned by the Chinese government over tax charges. Arts contributor Aoife Rosenmeyer talks about the work of Chinese painter Chen Hui being exhibited at the gallery in Lucerne. She also speaks to Urs Meile about some of the challenges artists are coping with in China:
Arts CH: Ascona honors Russian-Swiss artist Marianne WerefkinTuesday, 17 May, 2011Marianne Werefkin was a Russian-Swiss expressionist painter who created works now regarded as masterpieces in the early part of the 20th century. After the First World War, she and her lover moved to Switzerland, where they lived in Geneva and Zurich. Following a difficult separation, she retreated to Ascona on Lake Maggiore, in the canton of Ticino. She was extroverted and generous and loved by the people of Ascona, and it appears that she still is. An exhibit at the Museo Ascona features her early works, along with those of other Russian masters. Arts contributor Cristina Foglia has more details on the show. Plus, she talks to one of the curators, an expert on Russian art, John Bowlt:
Arts CH: Geneva's rescue of Spanish art during civil warTuesday, 10 May, 2011It is a little-known fact but Geneva played a crucial role in salvaging seminal works of art from Spain during that country’s civil war. Jane Seckel looks at an exhibition organized by the Museum of Art and History in Geneva that shows how far people went to save key works by Spanish Republicans. Photos of the daring 1939 art evacuation from the war-torn country to Switzerland are being displayed on Promenade de Saint Antoine, as well as in the museum, until May 29: