Invent the Future with Elements of the Past
March 20–July 12, 2015
Opening: Thursday, March 19, 19:00
Cabaret Voltaire
Spiegelgasse 1
8001 Zurich
Switzerland
Artists:
Judith Albert, Muriel Baumgartner with Tom Stäubli, Stefan Burger, Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, San Keller, Paul Polaris, Christian Ratti, Roland Roos, Navid Tschopp, !Mediengruppe Bitnik
Curator: Adrian Notz, Assistant: Jeffrey Wolf
PR: Nora Hauswirth, Graphic Design: Emanuel Tschumi
With the idea in mind of bringing Venice to Zurich, the STEO Foundation sent 12 Swiss artists, supervised by curator Adrian Notz, to Venice between September and November 2014 for a period of two weeks. Their mission: researching the Swiss sociologist Lucius Burckhardt (1925–2003), whose work even nowadays serves as a great source of inspiration for new generations.
The results of their Venetian research builds the foundation of the Zurich-based project Invent the Future with Elements of the Past. The 12 artists develop each a project that links to last year’s exhibition at the Swiss Pavillon in Venice, which reflects the spirit of Burckhardt implementing it into a contemporary art project.
The title Invent the Future with Elements of the Past was created by Hans Ulrich Obrist and serves as main theme for this project. The group of artists from Zurich travel into the past, back to the times of Lucius Burckhardt’s, study of his methods and adopt them to the present, drawing a line that carries on into the future. In other words: They gain momentum in the past in order to reach the future. An artistic and curatorial strategy that exists beyond this specific project and is also being applied at Cabaret Voltaire: The permanent exhibition Dada in Nuce is being squatted by the 12 artists, Dada being squatted by Lucius Burckhardt.
The primary place of action is not the exhibition at Cabaret Voltaire: It serves as reference to locations all over the city of Zurich, Venice or even such, that can’t be located geographically, such as the internet or the sky.
Agenda:
Thursday, March 19, 19h
Opening
Lecture and stroll to a manhole cover in front of Cabaret Voltaire with Christian Ratti
March 20–28
San Keller: Strolls with ANNEs and MARIEs on Limmatquai Zurich
Sunday, April 5, 15h
Symposium with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Tino Sehgal, Lorenza Baroncelli, Adrian Notz, Judith Albert, Muriel Baumgartner with Tom Stäubli, Stefan Burger, Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller, San Keller, Paul Polaris, Christian Ratti, Roland Roos, Navid Tschopp and !Mediengruppe Bitnik
Saturday, April 18, 14h
Paul Polaris: Tohu wâ bohū, procession with balloons from Kunsthaus Zurich to the Prediger church
Saturday, May 30, 15h
Squatbox tour: Sightseeing with Navid Tschopp along the alternative cityscape.
Meeting point: Cabaret Voltaire
Wednesday, June 10, 20h
Stefan Burger Gebüsch, screening at Cabaret Voltaire
Sunday, July 12, 15h
Book launch Invent the Future with Elements of the Past and finissage of the exhibition at Cabaret Voltaire
September 11 and 12
Presentation at the Salon Suisse, Venice
Publication
Scheidegger & Spiess launches a publication that is being presented at the finissage July 12 at Cabaret Voltaire as well as on September 11 and 12 at the occasion of the Venice Biennale of Art at Salon Suisse.
The 12 artists create specific contributions to the book such as inserts, texts, images and interviews. The publication reveals the project as a whole.
