Group Exhibition Fuentes. Non–European Influences On Contemporary Artists

In its first year, the biennial for contemporary music will focus on four composers (Beat Furrer, Steve Reich, Toshio Hosokawa, Klaus Huber) whose works are strongly influenced by non-European cultures. In parallel, the exhibition will present artists whose works explicitly refer to non-European influences or the art of past centuries. The exhibition will juxtapose works by contemporary artists with non-European works of art: from African sculptures over Japanese woodcuts to objects from India and objects from many different parts of the world.

The exhibition presents the many different ways in which artists draw on other cultures. The objects set against the works of Western artists may be important works of art, of inestimable value (like, e.g., woodcuts by Kitagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai, lent by the Albertina Vienna), but also quite normal everyday things, like a computer printout from the Internet.

The goal of the exhibition is to document the implicit or explicit dialogue of non-European cultures with the creative work of outstanding contemporary artists. By revealing important references of a work, the exhibition means to contribute to highlighting new facets in the reception of the selected artists. Nothing emerges only out of itself. Even ultimate creativity is always a dialogue with the strange, the ancient, the other, and the things perceived elsewhere.