Exhibition program 2017 Kunsthaus Zug The architecture of the built structure is what the human being, with his various senses, perceives of the building and its larger context. Franz Füeg
Pavel Pepperstein The Resurrection of Pablo Picasso in the Year 3111 26 February to 21 May 2017 Science fiction at Kunsthaus Zug: no sooner has the year 2017 begun and visitors find themselves already looking ahead to 3111. There, they encounter no less a figure than Pablo Picasso, introduced by the Russian artist Pavel Pepperstein (b. in Moscow in 1966), who aims to meet Picasso in the rooms of the Kunsthaus with works of his own. Pepperstein s relationship with Picasso goes back to infancy: his parents a children s book author and an artist named their son Pavel, the Russian equivalent to Pablo. Yet there are also biographical affinities. Picasso was a freethinker and a bon vivant; women and cheekiness are as much part of the legend surrounding him as they are of Pepperstein s. Eroticism and ecstasy in the guise of mythological creatures are leitmotifs in the Spaniard s work: nymphs, fauns and satyrs have a firm place in Picasso s art. Pepperstein will realize his fictional encounter with Picasso in new paintings executed in Moscow especially for this show. Pavel Pepperstein and his scheme to resurrect Picasso in the far-distant future did not appear out of nowhere. In fact, Pepperstein is a name well-known in Zug. Over the course of a five-year collaboration, he presented his work five times at the Kunsthaus, most recently in 2002. He brought friends with him from Russia, Ilya Kabakov for example, whose Ship of Tolerance rode at anchor on Lake Zug last summer and has meanwhile found a permanent home at the Brüggli uniting thousands of people in the spirit of a more tolerant world. Pepperstein is considered one of the most prominent artists living in Russia. In 2014 he was awarded the prestigious Kandinsky Prize. Yet his creative output is not limited to the visual arts: Pepperstein also writes art reviews, art-theoretical essays and even fiction. His art can be found in galleries and museums all over the world, for example the Louvre in Paris and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Fifteen years have passed since Pepperstein s last exhibition in Zug years that have brought about many changes. Now he will be returning with new surprises up his sleeve. Curated by Matthias Haldemann
Closed for Renovation 22 May to approx. 25 August 2017 The Kunsthaus devotes the coming summer to its premises. Since the alteration and expansion of the old manor in 1990 by the architect Franz Füeg, there has been little need for change. Now, however, it is time for some major renovations all over the building. The windows have to be renewed, fire-safety precautions in the form of new emergency exits are added and small repairs around the house have to be made. The most important and most visible change for visitors however will be the comprehensive new lighting concept, allowing a whole new look at the art. A cutting-edge combination of artificial and natural light shall provide an optimal setting for the exhibits. Yet the summer will be anything but art-less : the Kunsthaus Zug mobile is going to be on the road as usual. For fifteen years now, the museum has been coming to the people, investigating art education at unusual locations. A magnificent and award-winning adventure: in 2008, the Kunsthaus Zug mobile was distinguished by visarte schweiz and the Schweizerischer Kunstverein with the prize for the mediation of visual art. In its criss-cross explorations of Zug and the greater surroundings, it has never been stationed twice in the same place. It remains to be seen what surprises the Kunsthaus Zug mobile holds in store for us in the summer of 2017. What is more, the Kunsthaus continues to mingle with folks on the lakefront: plans are in the works for new events at the Ship of Tolerance. For the next five years, the vessel is located at the Brüggli, where bathers and pedestrians can use it and continue spreading its message. For up-to-date information, see www.kunsthauszug.ch.
Michael Kienzer 2 September to 5 November 2017 The courtyard of the Kunsthaus accommodates a sculpture called Parasite. It consists of loops of steel wire, inextricably intermeshed but nevertheless light and sprawling at once. Parasite has occupied its place on our grounds since 2010, when it was part of the exhibition LINEA: The Art of the Line Between Antiquity and the Present. Now its author is returning to Zug with his first comprehensive solo exhibition in Switzerland: the Austrian artist Michael Kienzer (b. in Steyr in 1962) inaugurates the freshly refurbished Kunsthaus. Kienzer calls himself a sculptor even though he doesn t spend his time chiselling stone. And indeed, one of his key concerns is: what can sculpture be today? With his show in Zug, he proposes an answer. He appropriates the building s architecture as a sculptural whole, singles out elements that spark his interest, deconstructs and further processes them. A tension ensues between his expansive sculptures and the building s structure and echoes in the friction between the works themselves. As if in a state of limbo, in search of equilibrium, self-contained forms encounter open ones; order and chaos interact; elegant, quiescent elements confront those of repellent aggressiveness. The artist plays with the effects of physical forces, disturbing, changing and concentrating them for his artistic investigation of spaces. Kienzer trained as a sculptor in the sculpture department at the Kunstgewerbeschule Graz and at what was then the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, where he still lives and works today. In 2005/2006 he was a visiting professor of art and communicative practice at the Institute of Fine Arts and Media Art of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He has been exhibiting his work in Austria and abroad since 1984. In Zug he presents new works, engages with the specific conditions of the museum s spaces and enters into dialogue with an important representative of the Kunsthaus Zug collection: the Viennese artist Fritz Wotruba (1907 1975). Even if the two sculptors never met in person, Wotruba has had a formative influence on his younger colleague. Concurrently with the exhibition in Zug, the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen will also be featuring works by Kienzer; a joint publication accompanies the two shows. Curated by Matthias Haldemann
Christa de Carouge 18 November 2017 to February 2018 In November, the rooms of the Kunsthaus Zug will presumably dress in black when we devote the last exhibition of the year to the textile designs of Christa de Carouge. Featuring the œuvre of the eighty-year-old designer (b. in Basel in 1936) for the first time in a comprehensive retrospective a point of departure demanding to both look back and ahead. De Carouge shows the fruits of her rich career, while at the same time opening the curtain onto a whole new stage and a great experiment: transforming the entire Kunsthaus, using fabrics to intervene in the museum s architecture. Please touch will be the motto when her cloth installations invite visitors not only to touch but to snuggle up and even put them on. My clothes are not fashion, states Christa de Carouge not fashion but living space for those who cloak themselves in it. A dwelling in which you can feel at home wherever you are. Between the dress and its wearer she sees a relationship, that defies trends and short product lifecycles. De Carouge s artistic beginnings date back to the 1970s. With her designs she accompanied the debate over the image of women and helped shape that image. Her earliest works came from a sense of emergence and to this day have a lot to do with freedom. La dame en noir has not only been dressing herself exclusively in black for about a quarter century: her characteristic, generously cut designs are also that shade. From de Carouge s point of view, black far from distracting frees our perception for the structures and qualities of textiles. One of her business ventures took her to the Genevan suburb of Carouge, where she ran her own studio from 1978 onward. The town would play such an important role for the designer, that she chose its name as her alias. She is one of the few women designers in Switzerland to have written fashion history beyond national borders, selling her work not only in Zurich but in many other European metropolises as well. De Carouge, whose real surname is Christa Furrer, ended her career two years ago. In addition to installations, the show in Zug also features sketches and photos and offers accompanying events. Venturing anew into areas related to art, the Kunsthaus Zug collaborates with her as a representative of textile design to once again explore new paths. Throughout the exhibition, de Carouge will be regularly on location in her house. Curated by Matthias Haldemann
Director, responsible for the programme Dr. Matthias Haldemann Collection curator Dr. Marco Obrist Organization and administration Raffaella Manferdini Doris Gysi Art education Sandra Winiger Friederike Balke Curatorial assistant Barbara Ruf Texts Melanie Kollbrunner Design l équipe [visuelle] LUZERN A 14 BAHNHOF SBB A4a ZÜRICH Kunsthaus Zug Dorfstrasse 27 6301 Zug Telephone 041 725 33 44 info@kunsthauszug.ch www.kunsthauszug.ch and on Facebook Tue to Fri 12 noon 6 pm Sat and Sun 10 am 5 pm ZUGERSEE Bahnhofstrasse Are you a member of Kunsthaus Zug? POSTPLATZ rasse