The artist Nicolas Party (connected over Zoom) discusses the genesis of his exhibition Rovine for MASI Lugano and the related catalogue which has just been released by Scheidegger & Spiess and Edizioni Casagrande. Through an extensive photographic documentation the catalogue reveals how Nicolas Party’s project has completely transfigured the museum exhibition space thanks to a major architectural intervention, backgrounds painted in contrasting colours and an extensive faux marble decoration. Within this fascinating context Party presents works created between 2013 and 2021 related to the genres around which he has focused his artistic research: the still life, the portrait, and the landscape, the latter expressed in rock formations, caves, and views of forests. The publication features contributions by Michele Robecchi and Francesca Bernasconi exploring various aspects of Party’s works, in particular his passion for art history, of which he is an eager and untiring explorer.

Speakers present in Zurich: Dr. Tobia Bezzola, Director of MASI Lugano; Francesca Bernasconi, Head of Exhibition Office, MASI Lugano; Marie Lusa, Founder of Studio Marie Lusa.

Joining remotely: Nicolas Party, artist.

The talk will be introduced by Dr. Tobia Bezzola, Director of MASI Lugano, and will be held in English.

Meeting point: Schwarzescafe / LUMA Westbau at Lowenbraukunst.

About Nicolas Party

Born in Lausanne in 1980, Nicolas Party currently lives and works in New York. His unique artistic path began in his early teens, when he first became passionate about graffiti, a means of expression he continued to explore for the following decade. After turning his interest towards 3D animation he obtained a bachelor at the Lausanne School of Art (ECAL) and subsequently completed his training with a Master of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. Over the past ten years, Party’s artworks have been greeted with both critical and public acclaim and have been displayed in renowned institutions, including Musée Magritte (Brussels, 2018), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington DC, 2017), Dallas Museum of Art (2016), Centre Culturel Suisse (Paris, 2015) and Swiss Institute (New York, 2012). His projects Rovine (Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano), Boilly (Consortium, Dijon) and Stage Fright (Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover) are currently on display in Europe.

About Tobia Bezzola

Dr. Tobia Bezzola was born in Berne in 1961. He graduated in philosophy and art history at the University of Zurich. After obtaining a Ph.D with a thesis on Kant, Fichte and Hegel holds, from 1992 to 1995, the prestigious role of assistant of Harald Szeeman. Since 1995 he has been appointed curator and later head of exhibitions at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. During this period, he curated more than thirty exhibitions, including monographic shows on Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Max Beckmann, Alberto Giacometti, Joseph Beuys, Christian Marclay, Thomas Struth, and thematic exhibition projects (Rivoluzione! Italian Modernism from Segantini to Balla, Hot Spots: Rio de Janeiro / Milan - Turin / Los Angeles). In 2013 he was appointed Director of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, one of the most important art museums in Germany, where he further developed the museum’s collecting and exhibition activities of international relevance (for example, the projects on Gerhard Richter, Thomas Schütte, Karl Lagerfeld), paying particular attention to the relationship with the various interest groups involved and to the development of the public and related activities. Since January 2018 he is Director of MASI Lugano.

About Francesca Bernasconi

Francesca Bernasconi was born in Lugano in 1978. She studied Art History and English Literature at the University of Lausanne and at the University of East Anglia. She graduated with a dissertation on the relationship between icons and monumental narrative painting in Italian 11th and 13th century art, under the supervision of Prof. Serena Romano. In 2006 she begins working at the Museo d’Arte of the City of Lugano and later at MASI, where she coordinated the realization of numerous exhibition projects among which are Enigma Helvetia (2008), A window on the World. From Dürer to Mondrian and Beyond (2012) and the monographic shows dedicated to Georg Baselitz (2007), Nobuyoshi Araki (2010), Paul Signac (2016) and Craigie Horsfield (2017). In 2014 she coordinated the exhibition Bramantino. The Renaissance in Lombardy and the related conference whose papers have been published in 2017. She has curated the retrospective dedicated to Markus Raetz in 2016 and co-curated the one of Wolfgang Laib in 2017. Since 2019 she is the head of the exhibition department at MASI.

About Marie Lusa

Born in Porrentruy in 1976, Marie Lusa currently lives and works between Zurich and Milan. She has been artistic director of Studio Marie Lusa since founding it in 2003. She teaches the Master in Type Design at ECAL in Lausanne and more recently as well at the Zurich University of Arts. Studio Marie Lusa encompasses a variety of activities that include visual identity, publication design, art direction, editorial and digital projects as well as consulting for brands. Recent commissions include books for Rietberg Museum, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Serpentine Gallery London, Kunsthaus Zürich, Fondation Beyeler, Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, The Ricola collection,  and many more. Visual identities for Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, Swiss Institutes New York, Paris Internationale, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst Zurich, Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, Christ&Gantenbein, Basel, KBHG, Basel, Muzeum Susch, Hotel Le Sirenuse in Positano etc. Marie Lusa is also partner at Galerie Gregor Staiger, Founder at Paris Internationale and at the Zurich Art Weekend.