*Due to health reasons, this event is postponed from 24.08. to 07.09.*

The Furkablick Institute is a contemporary art institution located at the Hotel Furkablick in the Swiss Alps. It was established to preserve and protect the artistic heritage of the Furk’art project; a series of artistic and architectural interventions that took place at the site from the 1980s to the early 2000s. After supporting the Furk’art project for years, the Alfred Richterich Foundation bought all the remains in 2004, more specifically the Furkablick Hotel, its contents and its environs. The Furkablick Institute was born and Janis Osolin was asked to watch over and maintain the artworks and installations created during the Furk’art project as well as hosting artist residencies that often involved interventions in the landscape and performances exploring the relationship between art and nature, access and isolation.

The Furkablick Institute is not a museum but a place primarily invested in the curatorial activity of care (curare); the practice lacks any institutional character, except for its name. The institute is about context: the context of preservation and decay, resistance and obstacles, geology and altitude. In conversation with Janis Osolin we are curious to find out more about Osolin’s strategy which he calls “mise en valeur” (bring into value) for the curatorial handling of almost everything. What does preserving, maintenance and resistance mean in the setting of high mountains, where eight months out of twelve are frozen in time? How are artworks cared for, restored and reinstalled in the context of the empty hotel, its surrounding buildings and the windy mountain fields? And last but not least, what does the precarious future hold for the caretaking of the Furkablick Institute?

Janis Osolin is a curator and publisher known for his  innovative and thoughtful work in conserving and presenting art, particularly in the context of the Furka Zone and Furkablick Institute. He has been involved in the Furk’art project, which aimed to preserve the artistic heritage of the Furka Pass, and has developed a unique approach to curating which builds on context and dialogue between different works and environments.

Margit Säde is an independent curator and art worker based in Tallinn and Zurich. She works as a curator, educator and producer with a particular interest in the relationship between subjectivity and collectivity, the human psyche and social well-being. She is a dedicated food saver and sauna enthusiast, currently running a community sauna by the sea in Tallinn, Estonia.

The talk will be held in English.

Furkapasshöhe, 6491 Realp
Accommodation recommendation: Hotel Tiefenbach