Written by Mathieu Doublet.

With the new « ReCollect! » series, the Kunsthaus Zürich is inviting artists to present their take on the collection in dialogue with their own works, thereby interrogating and reshaping the established canon. The exhibition begins with Matias Faldbakken/Ida Ekblad (Norway), Daniela Ortiz (Peru), and the collective Hulda Zwingli (Switzerland), who have invited other like-minded artists to join them. Museum collections contain not just a remarkable quantity of objects but also an abundance of (undiscovered) histories. Depending on how they are selected, works of art can give rise to various narratives and open up new perspectives on the here and now, and on the past. The history of art is also replete with talks, conversations, disputes and discussions, friendships and alliances between artists – both posthumously and during their lifetimes. The Kunsthaus Zürich is home to a collection of art from the Middle Ages to the present day. Until now, the task of selecting and presenting works has largely been carried out by the art historians and curators who are employed here. With the new « ReCollect! » series, the Kunsthaus is inviting artists to present alternative views of the collection in a range of intervention spaces. This multi-perspective approach to the collection creates a refreshingly inspiring polyphony that is in tune with the Zeitgeist. The title « ReCollect! » plays with the idea of restaging the collection, but also hints at recollection in the sense of memory. The idea is to (re-)discover stories and histories that have not previously been told or displayed in the museum context, and connect the past with the future. In this way, the Kunsthaus continues the tradition in which artists are important interpreters of works of art and open up new perspectives.

www.kunsthaus.ch