Works from the Nationale Suisse Collection

Works from the Nationale Suisse Collection

Curated by Claudio Moser

Room interventions by Karim Noureldin and Luc Mattenberger

Hans Theler (1904–1998) founded the collection of the Schweizerische National-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, which was continued by his son and successor René Theler (born 1935). Numerous works by renowned Swiss artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have thus been brought together over the past more than 60 years.

The exhibition in the museum franz gertsch is based on the “artist’s choice” principle. The Swiss artist Claudio Moser (born 1959) has made a personal selection and allows the visitor to partake in his view of the Nationale Suisse Collection. Guided by Moser’s associative, recollective, and visionary texts, the visitor immerses himself in a dreamful voyage of discovery through the various spaces. This intuitive, synaesthetic access allows one to feel out the very diverse works, permits sympathy and resonance. References between the paintings, drawings, and objects come to light; fine connections become clear and lead the viewer from one artwork to the next. Making a stopover in the museum franz gertsch, the visitor is provided the unique and temporary opportunity to enter into an aesthetic and emotional dialog with the works from the Nationale Suisse Collection.

The visitor encounters the Rakete (Rockets) by Roman Signer (born 1938) at the start of the exhibition parcours in the lower foyer as well as works by John M Armleder (born 1948) and Luc Mattenberger (born 1980). Room 2 is dominated by Meret Oppenheim’s (1913–1985) Le bouclier du chef (1965), which is supplemented by a granite head by Remo Rossi (1909–1982). These pieces are correlated to further works such as Miriam Cahn’s (born 1949) tier 23.3.1995 (1995) which are characterized by fine vibrations that “make the nerves sing” and veer between abstraction and figuration. The concept of Room 3 is devoted to Walter Moeschlin’s (1902–1961) work. The phrase “Au bout du monde et la terre qui tremble” can serve as the maxim here. A sculpture, the over three-meter high bronze Big Tongue (1997) by Not Vital (born 1948), is the main work in the final exhibition room devoted to the subject matter of “space.”

The two pieces produced especially for the exhibition in the museum franz gertsch have been given their own spaces. Karim Noureldin has set up the site-specific drawing installation Bel-Air in the cabinet while Luc Mattenberger’s most recent object The Ram can be marveled at in the museum garden.

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