Collection on Display: Momentary Monuments

The exhibition format Collection on Display showcases selected works from the collection of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst and features the following artists:

Christine Borland, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Dani Gal, Christian Jankowski, Fabrice Gygi, Mathilde ter Heijne, Ragnar Kjartansson, Teresa Margolles, Henrik Olesen, Thomas Schütte

Titled Momentary Monuments, the new installment of Collection on Display will present works that examine the significance and function of monuments for a larger exploration of memory and forgetting. In the perspective of art history, the evolution of sculpture is closely intertwined with that of monument culture. Effigies of rulers, equestrian statues, and monuments always reflect the tastes, worldviews, and designs of the powerful patrons who commissioned them. Yet they also illustrate contemporary developments in the discourse of art. Monuments served—and still serve—to propagate the prevailing ideas of their time and visualize the interpretation of events and personalities the ruling élites hope to enshrine in history books and collective memory. In contemporary art, the idea of the monument has become a focal point for artists’ engagement with the question of who determines how history is written and the representation of power in the public arena. The exhibition Momentary Monuments combines works from the collection familiar to our regular visitors with others that have rarely been on view and several new acquisitions that will make their début in Zurich.

Collection on Display is curated by Nadia Schneider Willen (Collection Curator, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst).