The linguistic and cultural landscape of Graubünden serves as the starting point for the exhibition How language invents the world. The Bündner Kunstmuseum thus takes up a main theme of human culture and locates this regional characteristic in a global context. By focusing on a selection of works by national and international artists as well as historical artifacts from Graubünden, the importance of language and narrative in community and society is illuminated.
The exhibition is based on linguistic documents from Graubünden, such as the travel diary of the 18th century Lumbreiner Gion Casper Collenberg, and explores their significance for our present day. Although the word "la mar" existed for the sea in Rhaeto-Romanic in the 18th century, there were no expressions for low tide and high tide. In his diary, Collenberg finally refers to a natural phenomenon that is well known in the Grisons mountains. He describes a stream whose level rises when it rains and then falls again later. "It's the same with the sea," he writes. If we put ourselves in the shoes of the family members, we can imagine how the sea becomes part of their imagination when they read - even if they have never seen it. The exhibition How language invents the world sheds light on the power of language to create ideas, produce fictional narratives and thus direct our view of the world. The works of artists such as Not Vital, Erica Pedretti, Annette Kelm, Thomas Hirschhorn, Marcel Broodthaers, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Zineb Sedira and Susan Hiller combine themes such as cultural identity, political narratives, migration and language change. The all-encompassing theme is considered within various turns of time and shows how language influences the way we think, act and understand the world.
A richly illustrated publication with literary texts by Gianna Olinda Cadonau, Asa S. Hendry, Marina Skalova, Joachim B. Schmidt, Usama Al Shahmani, Vincenzo Todisco, Ivna Žic, an introduction by Stephan Kunz and an essay by Damian Jurt will be published by Distanz Verlag to accompany the exhibition.
February 24 to July 28, 2024
