The exhibition Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos is the fifth presentation from the collection of the Hilti Art Foundation since opening its exhibition building in May 2015.

The show features thirty-three paintings, sculptures, photographs and other pictorial works that revolve around the themes "Epidermis", "Conditio humana" and "Cosmos" in what is an epoch-spanning display.

The focus in the first room is on the epidermis, the "skin" or surface of artworks consisting of materials including wax, cement, plastic foil, nylon, canvas or photographic paper used in different ways. Starting out from figured sculptures of Medardo Rosso and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, the exhibition goes on to feature works from the 1960s, e.g. by Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and Otto Piene, in which the image does not depict representational or nonrepresentational elements, but rather itself as an autonomous object that draws attention to the reality of matter, space, surface, colour or light.

In the second room, paintings and sculptures from the classical modern period spotlight the circumstances of life as conditions of human existence. Georges Seurat depicts people at work in an anonymous form, while Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti portray individuals in their corporeality linked by fate to space and time. The power of the Eros is illustrated in almost abstract forms in the work of Rudolf Belling and Julio González, albeit in such a way as not to relinquish the sensuous notion of lust and procreation, while Joan Miró and Paul Klee depict the conflict-laden meeting of the sexes.

The third room looks at the theme of "Cosmos" understood as a consideration and artistic interpretation of the world with regard to natural and abstract orders. In 1915, Ferdinand Hodler, for example, portrays the Swiss mountainscape in exquisite majesty, while Stéphane Kropf drafts images of these landscapes on the computer, transferring them onto canvas in a simplified form. Thomas Struth's photograph of a South Korean port visualises how the world is degenerating into an economic resource. And Gerhard Richter's painting of Capri and the Gulf of Naples presents a supposed idyll, with a destructive force of nature lying dormant below the changeable surface of the Earth.

The exhibition is curated by Uwe Wieczorek, curator of the Hilti Art Foundation.

More pictures to this exhibition

  • Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Exhibition view, photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography, Zurich © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / Hilti Art Foundation
  • Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Exhibition view, photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography, Zurich © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / Hilti Art Foundation
  • Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Exhibition view, photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography, Zurich © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / Hilti Art Foundation
  • Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Exhibition view, photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography, Zurich © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / Hilti Art Foundation
  • Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Exhibition view, photo: Stefan Altenburger Photography, Zurich © Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein / Hilti Art Foundation
  • Opening
  • Thu, 31.10.2019
    18.00
  • Guided tours
  • Thu, 7.11.2019
    18.00
  • Thu, 9.4.2020
    18.00
  • Thu, 8.10.2020
    18.00
  • Thu 31.10.

    Opening

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
  • Thu 7.11.

    Guided tour

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos.
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
    with Uwe Wieczorek
  • Wed 29.1.

    Introduction for Teachers

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
    mit Doris Defranceschi und Sabina Studer, für Lehrpersonen aus FL, A, CH, mit Anmeldung
    In Kooperation mit dem Schulamt Liechtenstein.
  • Thu 30.1.

    Take Away

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
    Short guided tour during the lunch break
  • Sun 2.2.

    One Hour

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
    with Uwe Wieczorek
  • Wed 5.2.

    Introduction for Teachers

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
    mit Doris Defranceschi und Sabina Studer, für Lehrpersonen aus Österreich, mit Anmeldung
    In Kooperation mit der PH Vorarlberg.
  • Thu 9.4.

    Guided tour

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation *** CANCELLED ***
  • Thu 27.8.

    Take Away

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos.
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation
    Short guided tour during the lunch break
  • Thu 8.10.

    Guided tour

    Epidermis – Conditio humana – Cosmos
    Works from the Hilti Art Foundation