Towering ambition: the Swiss artist Not Vital's Alpine playground The multidisciplinary artist mixes nature, architecture and art to grand effect at his foundation’s three locations
By Annabel Keenan
High on a hill in the Swiss Alpine region of Engadin sits Schloss Tarasp, an impressive castle thought to have been built in 1040. The fortress has changed ownership over the centuries. It belonged to the Count of Tyrol in the 13th century, later becoming part of an Austrian enclave and then of the short-lived Helvetic Republic in 1803, before passing through a series of private hands. Today, Schloss Tarasp is owned by the multidisciplinary Swiss artist Not Vital, who grew up in nearby Sent and bought this historic mountain retreat in 2016. The castle is part of a foundation—which also oversees a sculpture park, Parkin Sent, and the 17th-century Planta House Ardez—which the artist set up to preserve culture in the region by uniting art, nature and architecture.
Vital came onto the art scene in the late 1970s and 1980s in New York City and has since earned international recognition, exhibiting in both the art and architecture editions of the Venice Biennale. Working in disciplines that include painting, drawing and sculpture, he is best known for what he calls SCARCH—his humorous and sometimes enigmatic sculpture-architecture hybrids that blur the boundaries between the two. Vital moves often between Rio de Janeiro, Beijing and Sent, living a relatively nomadic life.
Vital established his artistic foothold in the Engadin region in southeastern Switzerland in 1998 when he bought Parkin Sent. Originally laid out in the early 20th century to house a private villa, the park had all the accoutrements of a luxurious retreat—a pool, luscious walking paths and a terrace—but the Second World War forced the then owner to abandon the plan. When Vital bought the park, he and his brother revived the overgrown land and began installing Vital’s artwork. In the early 2000s, the artist bought nearby Planta House Ardez, a house dating from 1642, and turned it into the headquarters of his foundation. The house contains a library of books in Romansch (the minority Swiss language) and hosts rotating exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, open to visitors each August.
