Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana Surrealism Switzerland Lugano +41(0)91 815 7971 10 February – 16 June 2019
[email protected] www.masilugano.ch Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, at LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura Curated by Peter Fischer, art historian and independent curator and Julia Schallberger, assistant curator at Aargauer Kunsthaus Coordination and staging at MASI Lugano by Tobia Bezzola, director and Francesca Benini, assistant curator Press conference: Friday 8 February at 11:00 am Opening: Saturday 9 February at 6:00 pm Press release Lugano, Friday 8 February 2019 From 10 February to 16 June 2019, the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana presents a great retrospective regarding Swiss Surrealism, organised in cooperation with the Aargauer Kunsthaus. The exhibition, titled Surrealism Switzerland , investigates both the influence the movement had on Swiss art and the contribution of Swiss artists in defining it. These artists include Hans Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Paul Klee and Meret Oppenheim. Starting from the question “Does Swiss Surrealism actually exist?” the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI) and the Aargauer Kunsthaus thoroughly examine the issue of Surrealism in Switzerland, which is an important part of the art history of this Country. The two museums present a new great retrospective in two different settings. The first, in Aarau from 1 September 2018 to 2 January 2019, focused not only on historical Surrealism, but also on its influence on contemporary art. The second one, setting at MASI from 10 February to 16 June 2019, deals exclusively with the historical expressions of Surrealism until the end of the 1950s, and is curated by museum director Tobia Bezzola in cooperation with Francesca Bernini, assistant curator at MASI.