MASI Lugano has released information on three upcoming major exhibitions for 2024 –
Eye to eye, Hommage to Ernst Scheidegger 18th February 2024 – 21st July 2024
Ernst Scheidegger (Rorschach, 1923-Zurich, 2016) is one of the most important photographers of the 20th century; a multifaceted, multilayered figure, the Swiss artist was also a painter, graphic designer and film director, and later, a gallery owner and publisher. A photojournalist – he worked with the renowned agency Magnum Photos – and habitué of the Parisian avant-garde art scene, Scheidegger is internationally known for his artist portraits, including his iconic one of Alberto Giacometti, a lifelong friend. MASI Lugano’s tribute to this eclectic artist – part of the celebrations for the centenary of his birth – springs from a collaboration between several institutions.
The exhibition traces Scheidegger’s photographic oeuvre, exploring two groups of works: a selection of early shots from 1945-1955, most of which have not been exhibited before, and his famous artist portraits, done on commission from the mid-1950s. In this second section of the exhibition, the photographic portraits are presented alongside a selection of works by the artists themselves.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication “Ernst Scheidegger. Fotograf” with texts by Tobia Bezzola, Philippe Büttner, Helen Grob and Alessa Widmer. The German and English edition is published by Scheidegger & Spiess, the Italian edition by Edizioni Casagrande Bellinzona.
The exhibition reinforces the museum’s focus on the history of Swiss photography.
In collaboration with Kunsthaus Zürich and Stiftung Ernst Scheidegger-Archiv, Zürich
Shahryar Nashat (working title) 17th March 2024 – 11th August 2024
“At a time when technologies filter out much of our bodily experience, Nashat’s research is extremely stimulating, because it prompts us to reflect on our human condition”
MASI Lugano dedicates a major exhibition to Swiss artist Shahryar Nashat (Geneva, 1975), who presents a high-impact immersive installation conceived by the artist for the occasion.
For the exhibition project, hosted in MASI’s underground hall, the artist will completely distort the museum space and its atmosphere by intervening on the floor, pillars, lights and walls of the hall. The central work on display will be a new video on a giant screen (LED wall), that will take on a strong sculptural presence.
In his exhibitions, Nashat likes to intervene on the space to create a cohesive multi-sensory environment and to explore materiality, experimenting with unconventional components for his works such as urethane rubber, resins, gel gloss and urine. With these highly evocative materials, Nashat often recalls physical and biological features of the human body, with which he conveys abstract feelings and concepts such as intimacy, passion, and fragility. The human body – in its interactions and sensations, in its fragility and resilience – is at the center of his artistic research, not limited to the real body but also to the body as image and the hybridization between one and the other.
Luigi Ghirri – Viaggi, Photographs 1970 – 1991(working title) 8th September 2024 – 12th January 2024
MASI Lugano will present in autumn 2024 a new extensive exhibition on the Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943-1969). A pioneering figure in late 20th-century photography as well as an influential thinker about photography and its role in modern culture.
Viaggi. Photographs 1970 – 1991 (working title) will lead the viewer on a route through Ghirri’s many different perspectives on the idea of travel and the experience of the journey. Photography’s unique capacity to translate a place into an image (and a memory) of a place was his starting point. From there, his work radiates out in many different directions, with surprising detours and recurrent obsessions.
One of Luigi Ghirri’s most well-known photographs shows a couple walking hand in hand across an Alpine meadow. The granite peaks of the Alpe di Siusi, an iconic image of the Dolomites, loom in the distance. It’s as if the couple are walking towards the image of the place, towards a postcard, as much as towards the place itself. Informed by a deep fascination for the medium, Ghirri’s work offers a philosophical, poetic and playful take on the complex entanglements of photography and place at a time when travel, tourism and casual photography had, for the first time, become a possibility for millions of people.
Curated by James Lingwood, Exhibition coordination at MASI Ludovica Introini
MASI Lugano (Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana) was established in 2015, when two long-standing Lugano museums – the Museo Cantonale d’Arte and Museo d’Arte della Città di Lugano – merged.
Thanks to its strategic position, at this cultural crossroads between the north and south of the Alps, MASI Lugano has quickly become one of the most popular art museums in Switzerland. In its two venues – the modern LAC Cultural Centre and the historical Palazzo Reali – MASI hosts /presents a packed programme of temporary shows and ever-changing exhibitions devoted to the works in its collection. It offers a wide range of mediation activities in multiple languages, upholding the values of inclusion and accessibility. MASI is committed to providing a participatory, engaging museum experience for all. Its artistic scope is expanded by its partnership with the Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati Collection – part of the MASI circuit – which is entirely dedicated to modern and contemporary art. masilugano.ch
