Na Sala Mágica — In the Wunderkammer II / In the Cabinet of Curiosities II > cancelled

Exhibition
Othmar Eder, Stettfurt
Cristina Witzig, Weinfelden

Guided Tour
Dr. Invar-Torre Hollaus, art historian,
Professor FHNW, Basel

The baroque cabinet of curiosities (Wunderkammer) in the baroque era aims to illuminate the hidden relationships between living beings and the stars, between the man-made and that which grew naturally. With it, the respective collector illustrates the web of relationships between things, how things are connected to each other.

As such, the cabinet of curiosities trough the analogy of macro- and microcosm creates a model for interpreting our understanding of the world.

The exhibition asks what the cabinet of art and curiosities would look like today. What would belong to a contemporary cabinet of curiosities, what dynamics would be at play? Two artists and a school class followed up on this question. Their results invite us to reflect on what represents our understanding of the world, and how it shapes us.

Over the years, Othmar Eder has set up personal cabinet of curiosities. One object occupying a special place within is an early watercolor depicting a rusty bowl, which one of the artist’s brothers found in the forest. For Othmar Eder, the city of Lisbon has become a metaphor for the cabinet of curiosities. Here, certain places exert a magical attraction on him, he continuously makes new discoveries. This has resulted in a Lisbon-cabinet of curiosities-archive, situated in a specially crafted box. At Haus zur Glocke, memories of his finds are kindled, connecting and overlapping; new works have emerged from them.

Christina Witzig’s cabinet of curiosities is dedicated to what is intangible yet sensible. Her collection is characterized by the liveliness of memories, often dating back years and still wanting to be classified, as well as by belief and value systems we create for ourselves in search of ways to name things that seem incomprehensible to us. In her artistic work, Christina Witzig unearths these ephemeral ‘artifacts’ in order to first substantialize and then correlate them. In creating her cabinet of curiosities, the artist asks about interrelations within the conglomeration of her impressions, uncovering what can be discerned therein.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with text by Invar-Torre Hollaus.