ART CITIES:Zürich – RATZ FATZ ZAUBER WAS/Fairs and Fairy Tales

As a Special Guest of LISTE Art Fair 2016, Kunsthalle Zürich presents a project based on children’s books. These books are narratives that parents bring into their rooms. In this intimate setting, accompanied by the voices of loved ones, these stories are passed on. And yet, they extend beyond the protected sphere of the home and enter the social realm.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kunsthalle Zürich Archive

Children’s books carry with them a plethora of expectations and hope,s like the romantic idea of the “childishly naive,” education and childrearing, and the discovery of children as a utopian matter. They offer an impressive demonstration of how much these narratives form the basis for the ideals and notions of childhood and society and our conception of the future. “RATZ FATZ ZAUBER WAS – Fairs and Fairy Tales”, is a project by Luca Beeler, Cedric Eisenring, and Carmen Tobler.  The project presents a collection of children’s books from the post-war era, whose richness and delight in visual experimentation reached a peak in the ‘70s. Extra copies removed from overfilled libraries, children’s books that fell out of the ecstatic focus and safekeeping of collectors and enthusiasts, or picture books from children’s rooms that gave way to the uninspired plans of empty nesters all bear the traces of countless children’s hands.  At LISTE Art Fair Basel a collection of over 200 children’s books is exhibited in a group of sculptural beings, from which visitors can take them out to browse as they please. There are also daily readings from the books with special guests at 15:00.

Info: Kunsthalle Zürich, Limmatstrasse 270, Zürich, Duration: 14-19/6/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed (14-15/6/16)11:00-18:00, Thu (16/6/16), 11:00-20:00, Fri (17/6/16) 11:00-18:00, Sat-Sun (18-19/6/16) 10:00-17:00, http://kunsthallezurich.ch