ZIWA Kunsthaus event - July 2015

Europe – The Future of History is the title of a new exhibition at Zurich’s Kunsthaus. Curator Catherine Hug asks, ‘What image represents Europe today?’ She has drawn together an eclectic collection of visual and digital images from the 20^th and 21^st centuries. On Wednesday, 8 July 2015, ZIWA members had the privilege of a guided tour of some of the 100 art works in the main first floor exhibition gallery. Catherine and her colleague Anna Bähler took us round the show in two groups of 20. It certainly helped our understanding to discover how this collection was selected and what it signified.

The exhibits ranged from Valloton’s The Rape of Europa (1908), a mythological painting in oil on canvas, to an installation of pallets which turned out to be made from polyurethane and not wood. We could enjoy viewing a collection by Dani Gal of record sleeves of famous speeches on vinyl and a series of portrait photos of famous people who have visited Café Odeon in Zurich’s Limmatquai.  A living artist from Geneva had painted a Histoire de Bretagne on the gallery wall while a collection of Breton faience signified the importance of tradition. The Austrian artist Herbert Brandl had created a montage of web images as the basis of his artwork showing the protection of the landscape, while Italian artist Boetti had created a world map in embroidery from a Euro-centric viewpoint.

The reunification of Germany and the destruction of the Berlin Wall were poignant images evoked by a German artist, and another series of painting depicted intimate views of different living spaces. Max Ernst, the German Surrealist, had fashioned another view entitled Europe after the Rain (1933), while another satirical German, Otto Dix, depicted a view of Switzerland from the German side of the Bodensee. There was even a chance to discover the different versions of blue fabric which are used to create the flag of the European Union.

After the one-hour tour which posed many questions about what Europe signifies to us, the ZIWA group convened on the restaurant terrace for an apero arranged by new Events Director Sarah da Ponte. The two guides joined us to answer more of our questions. This exhibition would repay a second visit in order to experience the full selection of art works while perhaps allowing one to speculate on what we would have chosen.

You can read more about this special exhibition at this link: http://www.kunsthaus.ch/en/exhibitions/

ZIWA is an international group comprising many European and international members with diverse mother tongues and home countries. What would your enduring image of modern Europe be?

Julia Newton, 22 July 2015.