Diverse city of art in Eastern Switzerland. A cultural stroll through St Gallen with museum director Monika Jagfeld.
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Intro
St. Gallen has so much to offer when it comes to contemporary art. Important Swiss artists such as Roman Signer and Pipilotti Rist come from Eastern Switzerland, and the range of art in the museums and public spaces in the city has something for everyone. Together with Monika Jagfeld, director of the Museum im Lagerhaus, we track down art and culture in all its aspects in St. Gallen.
St. Gallen
A European centre of education and culture in the middle ages, the eastern Swiss city of St. Gallen achieved wealth and prestige thanks to embroidery. Today, the traffic-free old town enchants with colourful bay windows, pretty boutiques, cosy cafes and the Abbey Quarter. The church and library precinct is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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The Lagerhaus in St. Gallen.
The striking building complex a few steps west of the St. Gallen train station is almost impossible to miss. Until the 1980s, this redbrick building served as a bonded warehouse for the textile industry. The building is now dedicated to culture. As well as the Kunst Halle St. Gallen, galleries and several artist’s studios are also located here. For example, this is the creative home of the internationally renowned Riklin brothers, Patrik and Frank Riklin.
Brutalist art and naïve art.
Monika Jagfeld is an almost daily visitor to the Lagerhaus. Since 2008, she has been the director of the Museum im Lagerhaus, named after the warehouse that houses it. This is the only museum in Switzerland that specialises in Swiss outsider art, brutalist art and naïve art.
What these art movements have in common is that the works were created by artists outside the professional art world: by laypeople and self-taught artists who never completed academic art training. The Museum im Lagerhaus boasts an impressive collection, comprising over 8,000 works of art by more than 180 outsider artists.
The Museum im Lagerhaus promotes diversity: both in art as well as in the wider society.
Art on every corner. The city of St.Gallen is like a giant museum.
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A clock that sets the scene.
When you join Monika Jagfeld for a stroll around the city, you soon realise that art in St. Gallen does not just happen in museums and galleries. It can be found in every public space in the city. This is evident as soon as you arrive at the train station in St. Gallen. Train passengers and commuters are met by the binary clock designed by St. Gallen artist Norbert Möslang. This is a good indicator of the things to come in terms of the art to be discovered in the city.
The binary clock is very aesthetically arresting, pointing the way to the future. It encourages us to think differently about time.
Modern accents in the urban environment.
Not far from the railway station on Marktplatz, another master architect has made his mark: Santiago Calatrava. The Bohl Bus and Tram Stop (1996) is one of a total of three projects that the star architect designed in St. Gallen.
St. Gallen took an early interest in the then still young architect Calatrava in the early 1980s.
A showcase for art.
In the middle of the old town you will find two glazed art display spaces set into a wall, which are used by an ever-changing series of artists. The project is named Hiltibold. Every three weeks, Hiltibold showcases two current exponents of contemporary art. Each new artist is toasted at the Hiltibold fountain.
Hiltibold was a contemporary of Gallus. Today, the Hiltibold art space acts as a showcase for contemporary art in the city.
The Barrel Fountain.
In a small park off Oberer Graben, an overflowing barrel sits enthroned on a steel base: The “Barrel Fountain” by Roman Signer. Around 30 years ago, the red barrel in St. Gallen was the subject of flushed faces and heated debate. These days Roman Signer, an adoptive son of St. Gallen, is one of the most important contemporary artists in Europe.
The original barrel is now one of the city’s most important landmarks.
The art of enjoyment. Monika Jagfeld enjoys a coffee in the Militärkantine.
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Art and culture are also a focus for the city’s coffee houses and restaurants. Not far from the Museum im Lagerhaus is the Militärkantine, where Monika Jagfeld likes to drop in for a coffee every now and then. Surrounded by sweet chestnut trees, the block, built around 1900, originally served as officers’ quarters. These days, the listed building houses a restaurant and hotel and is also used as a cultural venue.
In the Militärkantine, I experience sensual pleasures of both a culinary and artistic kind.
Art in the park. Monika Jagfeld in the Museum Quarter.
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Art in the park.
The next stop on our walk is St. Gallen’s Museum Quarter: In addition to the History Museum, this is also the location of the St. Gallen Art Museum. Opened in 1877, the Art Museum is one of the oldest museums in Switzerland. The collection comprises paintings and sculptures from the late middle ages to the present, which are shown in a permanent exhibition. The neoclassical building by architect Johann Christoph Kunkler was built in 1877 and is one of the most important of its kind. The two museums are connected by a beautiful city park, where there are several works of art to discover: for example, there are works by international artist Richard Serra as well as local artist Max Oertli.
A red living room in the centre of the city.
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The crowning glory in red.
The last stop of the St. Gallen art tour is a striking red square: The “Urban Lounge”, a large red living room in the centre of town, is the work of artist Pipilotti Rist and architect Carlos Martinez. The square, which opened in 2005, is designed as a meeting place where residents and visitors to the city should feel comfortable and are encouraged to linger.
When the lights come on in the urban lounge in the evening, creating a varied colourful effect, St. Gallen can be seen to shine in all its beauty.
How does St. Gallen’s binary clock work? Instructions.
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This timepiece demands some mental arithmetic.
The circles in the top row represent the hours, the crosses in the middle the minutes and the squares at the bottom the seconds. When read from right to left, the symbols stand for the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32. Now you have to add up the illuminated symbols.
The result: The time shown in the picture is 7:52 p.m. and 40 seconds.
