Vanessa Rüegger18.05.2023Freedom of expression is sometimes described as oxygen to democracy. Freedom of the press has been enshrined in the Federal Constitution since 1848. However, the right to free speech and artistic expression were only recognised as fundamental rights in the 20th century.
Barbara Basting09.03.2023Alexandre Calame is considered one of the fathers of Alpine landscape painting. And it all started, figuratively speaking, with a storm.
Kurt Messmer21.02.2023Over is over. The past is finished, set, unchangeable. History, on the other hand, is open, vivid, changeable, and thus disputable. Is there any such thing as certain knowledge? Yes – just not for ever.
Barbara Basting24.01.2023Artists were among the many to draw inspiration from the opening of the Gotthard railway tunnel 140 years ago. Prominent Ticino sculptor Vincenzo Vela created a contemporaneous memorial to those lost during its construction, entitled Victims of Labour. This key work was not particularly well received at the time, however.
Urs-Beat Frei11.01.2023There is benefit for the church in rivalry between king and emperor. As in Oberägeri and Unterägeri in the canton of Zug, which each acquired an extraordinary baroque monstrance – with a political message attached, mind you.
Michèle Seehafer09.01.2023The Baroque period saw increasing numbers of female artists begin to question the social structures of the age. The stories of Anna Waser and Maria Sibylla Merian demonstrate how these female artists fully bore comparison with their male contemporaries.
Julia Burbulla28.12.2022In France the layout of the Baroque garden was subject to strict rules, and its purpose was to illustrate power and wealth. Here in Switzerland, too, members of the aristocracy and the wealthy merchant classes constructed their gardens based on the French model – albeit with good Swiss simplicity.
Kurt Messmer03.11.2022A walking tour of Obwalden’s principal town. A connection, a story, emerges from the juxtaposition of locations and features. It recounts the history of a dynasty, typical for Central Switzerland, embodied in buildings. Four generations of Imfelds.
