Salon Suisse 2013, Out of the darkness into the shadow, Photo: Lukas Lienhard, Zurich.
Salon Suisse
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Collateral Events
Curator: Dr. Jörg Scheller
Location: Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi
Complementing Valentin Carron’s exhibition at the Pavilion of Switzerland at the 55th
International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
organizes the Collateral Event entitled «Salon Suisse» at the Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi.
The «Salon Suisse» is inspired by the tradition of art and literary salons in past centuries
and aims to encourage an international dialogue among artists, specialists, scholars,
students and other interested visitors from all over the world. This year’s «Salon Suisse»
is curated by Berne-based art historian Jörg Scheller who put together a challenging
programme of events focusing on the legacy of Enlightenment in the globalized art world
and looking at the history of the Biennale.
The events will include panel discussions, lecture performances, film screenings, a visual
music festival and a reenactment, but also more informal elements encouraging
encounters and discussions. The «Salon Suisse» is a forum for theoretical discourse as
well as a welcoming environment for a wide audience to exchange views on impressions
and insights gained at the Biennale.
The first «Salon Suisse» talk, entitled «The Loss and Gain of Place. Contemporary Artin a
Translocal Perspective», will take place on 1 June at 11am in the presence of Valentin
Carron and Giovanni Carmine andwill be preceded by a brunch. Jörg Scheller will meet
Monica Juneja, Professor of Global Art History at the University of Heidelberg, and discuss
with her the ‘burden of representation’ contemporary art is still confronted with, and ask
how a ‘translocal’ and ‘transcultural’ art could look. This talk will be followed by a second
panel discussion entitled «Shifting Views. Art Beyond the Anthropic Principle» on 2 June at
11am. Jörg Scheller will speak to German philosopher and postmodernism specialist
Wolfgang Welsch about concepts and examples of art that serves humans precisely by not
idealizing them.
The second series of events (13 to 15 June) will be entitled «New Aesthetics and
Research» and focus on up to date forms of Fluxus art, performance lectures and artistic
research. The third series (12 to 14 September) will have the title «Power and Economy»
and will ask questions around capitalism and art. The fourth series of events (17 to 19
October) is entitled «History and Contemporaneity» and will include, amongst other things,
a book presentation and panel discussion with Vienna-based historian, novelist and
journalist Philipp Blom; while the last series of the «Salon Suisse» 2013 (21 to 23
November) will focus on «Criticism and Dissent», including a reenactment of the exhibition «La nuova arte sovietica» from the Biennale of Dissidents (1977), organized by Matteo Bertelé and Sandra Frimmel.
Three evenings, entitled «Time Slices»,will take place as part of an autonomous series
within the «Salon Suisse». Theywill include panel discussions on the Swiss and further
pavilions at the Venice Art Biennale focusing on three particular years in this history: 1932,
1954 and 2005. In summer 2013 the Swiss Institute for Art Research (SIK-ISEA) will
publish «Die Biennale von Venedig: Die Beteiligung der Schweiz von 1920 bis 2013», a
publication on the history of Switzerland’s contributions to the Venice Biennale. Volume 1
contains essays, and Volume 2 materials.
For the duration of the five series of events, the «Salon Suisse» will be open on three days
a week from Thursday to Saturday from 6.00pm to 10.00pm no matter whether an event
will take place this particular evening or not. For the detailed programme of the «Salon
Suisse» please visit:
www.biennials.ch
As partner of the «Salon Suisse», Laufen Bathrooms AG is contributing to the events at
the Palazzo Trevisan with the intention to participate in and encourage an international
dialogue in the fields of arts and architecture.
Supporters and sponsors of the «Salon Suisse»: The last evening in the series «New
Aesthetics and Research» is sponsored by the ZHdK, Zurich University of the Arts. The
«Time Slices» are supported by SIK-ISEA, the Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich.
Sponsor: Cassina
Note to editors
The curator, Dr. Jörg Scheller
The curator of the «Salon Suisse» 2013 is Jörg Scheller (b. 1979 in Stuttgart, Germany),
an art historian, journalist and musician based in Berne. From 2007 to 2009 he held a grant
from the German Research Foundation. Subsequently, he worked as a researcher at the
Swiss Institute for Art Research in Zurich and as assistant professor at the University of
Siegen. He was awarded his PhD for a thesis on the myth of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In
2012, he was appointed permanent lecturer for art history and cultural studies at the
Zurich University of the Arts. His reviews and essays are regularly published in mayor
German-speaking newspapers and magazines. Jörg Scheller co-organized conferences in
Germany, Romania, Poland and the U.S. and gave numerous lectures at universities as well
as museums throughout Europe and abroad.
The Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi in Venice
The second floor Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi at 'Zattere' in Venice belongs to the Swiss
Confederation and houses the offices of the Swiss Consulate. Initiated by Pro Helvetia, the
accompanying programme to the exhibition in the Swiss Pavilion, the «Salon Suisse» is
held in the main room of the Palazzo as of 2012. Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Dorsoduro
810, is close to Campo S. Agnese. The nearest vaporetto stop is Zattere.
Pro Helvetia
Schweizer Kulturstiftung
Hirschengraben 22
CH-8024 Zürich
T +41 44 267 71 71
F +41 44 267 71 06
info@prohelvetia.ch
www.prohelvetia.ch
