(RE)CONSTRUCTED

This group exhibition unites regional, Swiss and international positions against the background of a common theme. All the positions negotiate matters of construction, destruction and reconstruction, as they might emerge from a disaster such as that of the Glarus fire of 1861. The exhibition shows both poetic and also critical statements about the moment of the zero point of civilisation, the social and cultural reconstruction and its fictitious-utopian potentials.

The theme of the exhibition refers to the memorial activities from May to September for the 150th anniversary of the Glarus fire of 1861. This conflagration destroyed almost the entire city. For its reconstruction the urban planning concept employed was extremely progressive for its time. Destruction and reconstruction are themes with a long tradition in the history of both humanity and art. Devastations by war, social and political unrest, struggles for power and modernisation as well as natural disasters repeatedly provide breeding grounds for a wide variety of different utopian and dystopian visions, and these also find a place in the arts. The current environmental catastrophe in Japan gives some of the works in the exhibition an especially urgent currency, which in turn gives the overriding theme of the exhibition a global dimension.

The selection of regional artists is based on a project competition under a common theme as assessed by an expert jury made up of Katharina Ammann (conservator at the Bündner Kunstmuseum), Nadja Baldini (art historian and freelance curator) and Boris Magrini (art historian and freelance curator), who selected six projects by artists of the region. The exhibition shows works by SARAH BURGER, MARINA HAUSER, SUSANNE HAUSER, NICOLE HOESLI, SIRO A. MICHEROLI and SWEETERLAND. Other Swiss positions are represented by CHRISTOPH DRAEGER, LOREDANA SPERINI and WIEDEMANN/METTLER while international positions have also been invited from JANET CARDIFF & GEORGE BURES MILLER, SOFIA HULTÉN and CYPRIEN GAILLARD, all of whom are concerned with the same complex of themes. After the initial ‹KUNSTSCHAFFEN: EXTRAORDINARY!› exhibition of this kind in 2007, the exhibition of regional artists is taking place again this year, under new conditions.