eac. celebrates its 30th +1 anniversary !
Espace libéré - Hommage à Sybil Albers

Artists presented at the castle : Bernard Aubertin, Robert Barry, Cécile Bart, Ben, Max Bill, Reto Boller, Matti Braun, Marcelle Cahn, Ernst Caramelle, César, Hanne Darboven, Herbert Distel, Jacob El Hanani, Stefan Gritsch, Christoph Haerle, Marcia Hafif, Al Held, Christian Herdeg, Marguerite Hersberger, Gottfried Honegger, James Hyde, Yves Klein, Serge Lemoine, Renée Levi, Sol LeWitt, Verena Loewensberg, Mario Merz, Henri Michaux, François Morellet, Olivier Mosset, Jan van Munster, Aurelie Nemours, Jean Pfaff, Gerhard Richter, Torsten Ridell, Fred Sandback, Adrian Schiess, Roman Signer, William Turnbull, Günther Uecker, Elisabeth Vary, Michel Verjux, Dieter Villinger, Markus Weggenmann, Franz West, Heimo Zobernig

Artist presented in the park of the castle : herman de vries 

Artists presented at the level-1 of the Donation : Ernst Caramelle, Bernard Plossu et Nikolaus Schwabe

On the occasion of its 30 +1year, the eac. proposes in the autumn an original project entitled Espace libéré that will be spread over several sites of exposure: the castle gallery, the level -1 of the donation and the castle’s park.

At the donation, a retrospective exhibition will revisit the history of the art centre through its main tasks: support for contemporary creation, conservation and enhancement of the permanent collection and pedagogy.

Exhibitions, events, educational activities and personalities will be evoked by a selection of official or more confidential photos. The presentation of these photographic archives will allow us to trace the history of the eac. and to highlight the personalities who have left their mark on the place. 

From the early involvement of Sybil Albers-Barrier and Gottfried Honegger, to the donors who have made it possible for the collection to exist, but also all those who by their presence, their commitment to us, have always defended the project of concrete art: artists, representatives of cultural authorities and members of the team. 

Bernard Plossu, present at the inauguration of the Albers-Honegger Donation in 2004 made at the time several unpublished pictures which will be presented for the first time at this occasion.

In the castle gallery, a tribute will be paid to Sybil Albers, co-founder and donor of the Espace de l’Art Concret, art collector, artist’s book editor and curator, who died in September 2019. 

In the early 1970s, after meeting Gottfried Honegger, Sybil Albers chose to "live in art". For more than thirty years, she built a demanding collection, centred on built art.

For the 30+1 year of the eac., her daughter Ines Bauer has designed an exhibition of some thirty works dear to Sybil Albers. Most of them are now preserved in the personal collection of Sybil Albers in Zurich. Some of them are part of the collection donated to the State in 2000 by Sybil Albers and Gottfried Honegger, in permanent deposit at the eac. 

Designed as a walk, the exhibition reveals a penchant for radical forms, often monochrome, and reveals the precious artistic friendships that have accompanied Sybil Albers throughout her life. 

This presentation is based on the principle that guided Sybil Albers in 1993 when she experimented with curating an exhibition at the castle Espace Libéré "The void to create a space to marvel at us, to marvel at our world." (Extract from the exhibition catalogue). 

For Sybil Albers, the notion of "emptiness" meant abandonment, letting go of control in order to open up to new perceptions of space. It was in this spirit that the curator invited a dozen artists to participate, free to accompany her on this leap into the unknown. 

This adventure is now evoked in the halls through the works of Robert Barry, Ernst Caramelle, Christoph Haerle, Yves Klein, Olivier Mosset, Fred Sandback, Adrian Schiess, Roman Signer et Michel Verjux. Other artists, dear to Sybil Albers, complete the tour. 

The whole then evokes Mario Merz’s play My home’s wind. Placed at the entrance of the exhibition, the work is a metaphor for the thought of Sybil Albers and the exhibition: to free yourself from any space, to move freely, according to the wind, always keeping warmth and light with you…

Presented in the exhibition Espace libéré in 1993, the artist Ernst Caramelle proposes an in situ interventionthat connects the two aspects of this project.