The Landscape as an Echo of Culture

Connected by the Klausen Pass and by the echo: Nestled in the Alpine landscape, the Kunsthaus Glarus and the Haus für Kunst Uri in Altdorf are presenting their first jointly curated exhibition. Conceived around the acoustic phenomenon of the echo—historically described as the sigh of the mountains or the whisper of mountain spirits—the institutions explore contemporary reverberations that interpret and help shape landscapes socially, culturally, and politically. Landscape is not stylized as an idyll but is perceived as a metaphor for human action, which manifests itself, for example, in migration, war, and ecological changes. In The Sigh of the Mountain – On Echoes and Traces in Our Landscapes, works by 18 national and international artists are on view through August 30. The exhibition was curated by Annette Amberg and Gioia Dal Molin, who took over as directors of the two institutions last year.

The show features Noor Abed, Talar Aghbashian, Kateryna Aliinyk, Nathalie Bissig, Yann Stéphane Bisso, Binta Diaw, Andro Eradze, Sky Hopinka, Dominique Koch, Angelika Loderer, Zahra Malkani, Lou Masduraud, Leila Peacock, Noemi Pfister, Stas Shärifulla, Tiffany Sia, Rebecca Solari, and Anouk Tschanz. The artists, all born in the 1980s and 1990s, work in various media such as painting, film, photography, sculpture, sound, and performance. Drawing on fictional and real landscapes—including, for example, Ukraine and the Sindh province in Pakistan—they reveal historical and political traces that will remain visible well into the future. The Kunsthaus Glarus also uses historical archival material and photographs to shed light on its own immediate surroundings: in the mid-19th century, the canton was first marked by massive emigration to the United States, and a few decades later by an »economic miracle« and extreme immigration.