L'Air du Temps - Collection Printemps / Été 2004

Collecting implies a continuous movement back and forth. To collect means to establish a history, but it also means to rework and renew it.

The exhibition “L’air du temps – collection printemps/été 2004” presents the latest acquisitions of the migros museum für gegenwartskunst together with earlier works from the collection. Throughout the history of the collection, it has not only been the presentation of a given work that matters, but also the primacy of the idea behind it and the process that springs from it. This is why it is necessary to render an account of social issues and to acknowledge social responsibility, precisely along the lines laid down by Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler. Thanks to a progressive acquisitions policy throughout the 1990s, the collection holds numerous important works by Swiss and international artists. Apart from those that reflect the earlier positions of Minimalist or Conceptual Art, many of the works in the collection are marked by an element of participation, and contribute to contemporary artistic discourses. At present, the conceptual priority of the curators is to integrate the collection within a lively environment that is in touch with contemporary artistic production and addresses an open-minded audience.

Curated by Raphael Gygax and Heike Munder