Museo Casa Anatta

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Main facade of Casa Anatta

The Museo Casa Anatta is a museum on the site of Monte Verità in Ascona , Canton Ticino , Switzerland . It is the central exhibition location of the museum complex on Monte Verità - the museum tour, which is protected as a cultural asset, also includes the Casa Selma , Casa dei Russi and Padiglione Elisarion buildings . The Casa Anatta building has been used as a museum since 1981.

Exhibition “Monte Verità. Le mammelle della Verità "

Exhibition room on the second floor

The heart of the museum is the extensive Monte Verità exhibition . Le mammelle della Verità ( German  The Breasts of Truth ) by curator Harald Szeemann . This traveling exhibition was shown for the first time in the summer of 1978, spread over six different locations in Asonca and on the Brissago Islands  . The Casa Anatta was also part of the exhibition space at that time. The exhibition was later shown in the Kunsthaus Zürich , in the Berlin Academy of the Arts , in Vienna in the Museum of the 20th Century and in the Villa Stuck in Munich .

“ Monte Verita is also an archaeological exhibition and corresponds to a visualized report of the excavations that have been carried out. The finds are contributions to today's highly topical, sometimes explosive topics, from philosophical anarchism to life reform, community building, sexual revolution, women's emancipation, to the citizens' initiative against nuclear weapons and also for the protection of the environment. "

- Harald Szeemann : exhibition catalog

The exhibition took three years to develop. For his first large, independently curated exhibition, Szeemann brought together countless objects and spoke to contemporary witnesses. The result is an “alternative exhibition in the peripheral areas of modern European cultural history”. The concept envisaged “ making the history of the mountain in all its heterogeneity not only tangible from the outside, but also experienceable” ( Dominik Keller ). Szeemann called the individual topics of the exhibition “breasts”, analogous to the many-breasted Artemis of Ephesus - they were divided into anarchy , social utopia, soul reform, life reform, spiritual reform, body reform, psychology , mythology , dance and music, literature and art. It not only dealt with the history of Monte Verità, but the entire Ascona region with the Brissago Islands, the Teatro San Materno (Ascona), the Elisarion in Minusio , the "Enciclopedia del Bosco" by Armand Schulthess and several artists, including Ingeborg Lüscher , Italo Valenti and Gianfredo Camesi .

From 1981, parts of the traveling exhibition, which included many loans, found a home in the Casa Anatta as a permanent exhibition; Szeemann also took care of the presentation here and subsequently managed the museum. After his death, the exhibits were sold to the Monte Verità Foundation. In 2009 the building, which was in a desolate state, had to be closed. The restored museum was reopened in 2017. The exhibition “Monte Verità. Le mammelle della Verità “comprises 975 objects and was left in its original form, even if this is no longer entirely in keeping with the times.

The exhibition La verità di una montagna (The truth of a mountain) in four small rooms in the basement provides information about the exhibition in the remaining rooms.

Casa Anatta

The year 1904 is usually mentioned as the year of construction of Casa Anatta and 1905 for the inauguration. In more recent literature, however, it is mentioned that it is more likely that the building was not built until after 1907/08, as it was not mentioned in earlier reports and, in contrast to the main building, cannot be seen on old photos. The name of the building is derived from the Buddhist motto anatta .

Restored wooden stairs that lead down to the first floor

The wooden house served as a residential building for Ida Hofmann and Henri Oedenkoven and as a community house for the cooperative founded four years earlier on Monte Verità. The architect is unknown, but Henri Oedenkoven was certainly involved in the design. He was influenced by Art Nouveau and probably also by philosophical ideas from theosophy . Oedenkoven moved out of Casa Anatta in 1913, and Hofmann subsequently lived in Casa Bianca . From 1920 a children's home was housed on Monte Verità, and the Casa Anatta served as a restaurant with dance and music. From 1926 it served as an apartment for Eduard von der Heydt , who lived in Ascona from 1929. Parts of his art collection were housed in the Casa Anatta. For the years before and after 1926, two conversion phases are documented with conversions and additions, such as an extension of the second floor and arcades in the basement, which were later bricked up. From 1942 the house served as a dependence of the hotel on Monte Verità, later a simple guest accommodation. When the house became a museum in 1981, it had to be restored and restored. A kitchen was removed and the magnificent staircase rebuilt.

The building has a cross-shaped floor plan and extends over three floors. The entrance to the museum is in the brick basement. The most important rooms were on the first floor above - additional light originally came from an atrium-like skylight. The floor above is significantly smaller and includes a small "tower room" raised. The main entrance was initially located on the second floor, and was moved to the south through von der Heydt. The house already had central heating in earlier times .

Start of stairs on the second floor and view up into the "tower room"

The double walls made of wood - horizontal outside, vertical below -, high rooms and rounded corners and vaulted ceilings in the rooms are characteristic of the building. Sliding doors, large windows and a flat roof over large parts of the first floor, where Oedenkoven could stay naked undisturbed, give the house its own character.

"The house [...] is of great historical and artistic value and must be regarded as one of the first European buildings in which a unity of function and form was achieved with a simple, linear structure."

- Mara Folini : Ascona's Monte Verità

The art historian Sigfried Giedion  described the house in 1934 in the Schweizerische Schreinerzeitung as “the most original wooden house in Switzerland”.

In the early 2010s the building was in very poor condition, rotten and damp. A temporary roof protected the building. After several years of restoration under the aegis of the then museum director Lorenzo Sonognini , Casa Anatta was reopened in May 2017. The rather crowded exhibition rooms are in contrast to the originally sparsely furnished house, on the walls of which there were no pictures so as not to distract from the image of the green landscape that was visible through the windows.

Museum tour

The museum tour (Italian: Percorso museale Monte Verità ) is a cultural asset of national importance (A object) and has been included in the cultural asset protection inventory under number 8634. It includes:

  • The Casa Anatta with exhibitions on the history of Monte Verità and its colony.
  • The Casa Selma is a typical "light-air hut" built in 1904 from the early days of the colony.
  • The Padiglione Elisarion is a wooden pavilion that emerged from a former lounge hall. Today there is the giant painting Chiaro mondo dei beati by Elisar von Kupffer (1923).
  • The Casa dei Russi was named after Russian visitors and reopened in 2015 after renovation.

  • Museo Casa Anatta

  • Casa Selma

  • Padiglione Elisarion

  • Casa dei Russi

Albergo Monte Verità

The hotel building was included in the monument register as the most important example of modern architecture with other buildings, surrounding park and works of art and was also classified with the highest protection level.

  • The hotel building

  • Villa Semiramis

  • «Roue Oriflamme / Goldflammendes Rad» by Hans Arp

  • Historical shower in the park

literature

  • Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin , Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti: Storia architettonica e restauro del Monte Verità . In: Fondazione Monte Verità (ed.): Arte e storia . No. 74 . Ticino Management, 2017 (volume published on the occasion of the renovation of Casa Anatta).
  • Gabriella Borsano Claire Halperin, Harald Szeemann (Ed.): Monte Verità - Mountain of Truth: local anthropology as a contribution to the rediscovery of a modern sacred topography. Catalog for the exhibition at Casa Anatta, Monte Verità; Community Museum, Ascona; Marianne von Werefkin Foundation, Community Museum, Ascona; New gym, Collegio Papio, Ascona; Former theater, Collegio Papio, Ascona, July 8 to August 30, 1978; Brissago Islands, July 8th to August 27th 1978. Armando Dadò u. Electa Editrice, Lugano a. Milan 1978.
  • "Lei non può lamentarsi di aver passato il suo tempo annoiandosi." Harald Szeemann e l'esposizione sul Monte Verità . In: Claudia Lafranchi Cattaneo, Andreas Schwab (ed.): Dalla visione al chiodo. Dal chiodo alla visione. Il Fonde Harald Szeemann dell'Archivio Fondazione Monte Verità . Bellinzona 2013, p. 173-220 .
  • Du 10/1978 ( e-periodica.ch [accessed on November 17, 2017])

Web links

Commons : Museo Casa Anatta  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Inventario svizzero dei beni culturali d'importanza nazionale (list of A objects in the canton of Ticino). (PDF) In: Federal Office for Civil Protection. July 1, 2018, accessed January 5, 2018 (Italian).
  2. ↑ a b c Mara Folini: The Monte Verità of Ascona . In: Swiss art guides . Series 94, No. 939-940 . Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-03797-117-8 , p. 18 .
  3. ↑ a b Harald Szeemann: Monte Verita - Mountain of Truth . In: Gabriella Borsano Claire Halperin, Harald Szeemann (Ed.): Monte Verità - Mountain of Truth: local anthropology as a contribution to the rediscovery of a modern sacred topography. Armando Dadò and Electa Editrice, Lugano a. Milan 1978, p. 6th f . (Catalog for the exhibition in the Casa Anatta, Monte Verità; Community Museum, Ascona; Marianne von Werefkin Foundation, Community Museum, Ascona; New Gym, Collegio Papio, Ascona; Former Theater, Collegio Papio, Ascona, July 8th to 30th. August 1978; Brissago Islands, July 8 to August 27, 1978).
  4. ↑ a b c d Andreas Schwab : “You can't complain that your time was boring.” Harald Szeemann and the Monte Verità exhibition . ( palma3.ch [PDF; accessed on November 17, 2017]). Published in full in Italian translation: “Lei non può lamentarsi di aver passato il suo tempo annoiandosi.” Harald Szeemann e l'esposizione sul Monte Verità . In: Claudia Lafranchi Cattaneo, Andreas Schwab (ed.): Dalla visione al chiodo. Dal chiodo alla visione. Il Fonde Harald Szeemann dell'Archivio Fondazione Monte Verità . Bellinzona 2013, p. 173-220 .
  5. ↑ Dominik Keller in: Du 10/1978, p. 76 (e-periodica.ch [accessed on November 17, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Susanna Petrin: True spinners on the mountain . In: Basler Zeitung . May 17, 2017 ( bzbasel.ch [accessed November 17, 2017]).
  7. ↑ Mara Folini: The Monte Verità of Ascona . In: Swiss art guides . Series 94, No. 939-940 . Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-03797-117-8 , p. 16 .
  8. ^ Andreas Schwab: Monte Verita - Sanatorium of Sehnsucht . Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-280-06013-3 , p. 125 .
  9. ↑ a b c Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin, Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti: Storia architettonica e restauro del Monte Verità . In: Fondazione Monte Verità (ed.): Arte e storia . No. 74 . Ticino Management, 2017, Casa Anatta, l'oggetto misterioso del Monte Verità, p. 43 .
  10. ↑ Lea Porsager: Anatta Experiment . After Hand, 2012, ISBN 978-87-90826-24-6 , Prologue.
  11. ↑ a b c Casa Anatta: In front of the building. in: mediaguide Monte Verità.
  12. ↑ a b Mara Folini: The Monte Verità of Ascona . In: Swiss art guides . Series 94, No. 939-940 . Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-03797-117-8 , p. 19 .
  13. ↑ Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin, Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti: Storia e architettonica restauro del Monte Verita . In: Fondazione Monte Verità (ed.): Arte e storia . No. 74 . Ticino Management, 2017, Casa Anatta, l'oggetto misterioso del Monte Verità, p. 44 .
  14. ↑ a b Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin, Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti: Storia e architettonica restauro del Monte Verita . In: Fondazione Monte Verità (ed.): Arte e storia . No. 74 . Ticino Management, 2017, Casa Anatta, l'oggetto misterioso del Monte Verità, p. 45 .
  15. ↑ Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin, Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti: Storia e architettonica restauro del Monte Verita . In: Fondazione Monte Verità (ed.): Arte e storia . No. 74 . Ticino Management, 2017, Casa Anatta, l'oggetto misterioso del Monte Verità, p. 52-53 .
  16. ↑ Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin, Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti: Storia e architettonica restauro del Monte Verita . In: Fondazione Monte Verità (ed.): Arte e storia . No. 74 . Ticino Management, 2017, Casa Anatta, l'oggetto misterioso del Monte Verità, p. 54 .
  17. ↑ Mara Folini: The Monte Verità of Ascona . In: Swiss art guides . Series 94, No. 939-940 . Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-03797-117-8 , p. 21 .
  18. ^ Museum brochure Museo Casa Anatta . Fondazione Monte Verità, 2017
  19. ↑ Simon Knopf / SDA: Museum on Monte Verità will be restored from autumn . In: Tages-Anzeiger . June 12, 2013 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed November 17, 2017]).
  20. ^ Valerio De Giorgi: Editorials . In: Gabriele Geronzi, Bruno Reichlin, Danilo Soldati, Carlo Zanetti, Fondazione Monte Verità (eds.): Storia architettonica e restauro del Monte Verità (=  arte e storia . No. 74 ). Ticino Management, 2017, p. 5 .
  21. ↑ 1. Casa Anatta: entrance. in: mediaguide Monte Verità.
  22. ↑ Cultural property protection inventory with objects of national importance, KGS-DS-No. 8634.
  23. ↑ Cultural property protection inventory with objects of national importance, KGS-DS-No. 10262.

Coordinates: 46 ° 9 ′ 28.5 "  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 47"  E ; CH1903:  702306  /  112689