5 SHOWS is the new Artissima twice-monthly feature that recommends 5 exhibitions not to be missed in various European cities, chosen from the viewpoint of curators and directors of important institutions familiar with the local context. A different way to find guidance in the discovery of contemporary art across borders, with a personal and always up-to-date perspective.
The fourth focus is on Zurich, with a selection by Mirjam Varadinis, curator and writer.
Here are the 5 exhibitions currently on view she has chosen for our readers:
Liesl Raff. A Corridor, a Room, and Four Dens
Galerie Eva Presenhuber
Up to 21.03.2025
Liesl Raff’s work is not spiritual, but deeply rooted in materiality and process. As a painter and sculptor, she explores the tension between soft, pliable materials and rigid, structural supports. The artificially pungent smell of latex transforms under her hands into an architectural, sculptural gesture. In her studio, Raff spends long hours layering liquid latex on the floor, pushing and pulling it into every contour of a three-by-four-meters asymmetrical frame that she forms by hand from unfired clay.
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Caroline Bachmann & Nicolas Party. Tribute to a lake
Galerie Gregor Staiger
Up to 29.03.2025
The works of Caroline Bachmann and Nicolas Party inevitably draw their motifs from the specific (conceptual) history of Swiss landscape painting, beginning with artists who traveled through the Swiss Alps in the 18th and 19th centuries to create Alpine views; tourist images such as those at the beginning of Ferdinand Hodler’s oeuvre, through to the symbolist (dream) landscapes of the 20th century.
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Accumulation – On Collecting, Growth and Excess
Migros Museum
Up to 25.05.2025
The consequences of excessive growth are becoming ever more visible – and awareness of it is constantly increasing. Yet progress, prosperity and social status continue to be equated with the accumulation of material goods. Accumulation invites visitors to engage with the challenges of and alternatives to excess. Over-consumption intensifies the climate crisis, deepens social inequalities and stabilises (neo-)colonial power relations. But what is the way out?
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Levan Chogoshvili
Kunsthalle Zürich
Up to 15.05.2025
Levan Chogoshvili (b. 1953, lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia) is among the most important Georgian artists of his generation. Since the 1970s he had created an extensive body of work in Tbilisi which incorporates painting, drawing, film and sculpture. Central to this work is the question of history: how it is essential – in general, but particularly for Georgia. For some two centuries in the case of Georgia, the telling or recording of history has been continually under pressure; history is continually expunged or corrupted, equally artists like Chogoshvili bring it back to life and render it visible.
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ReCollect! Yto Barrada
Kunsthaus Zürich
Permanent collection
Artists look at the Kunsthaus collection. Their multi-perspective approach opens up a fresh, inspiring polyphony. In this way, the Kunsthaus continues the tradition in which artists are important interpreters of works of art and open up new perspectives.
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