Di arte e architettura. Progetti / On art and Architecture. Projects

On the western side of Göschenen, after the power station, stands the new Kunsthalle building, designed by architects Burkhalter Sumi, who were responsible for transforming the former Stücki arsenal into the Kunstdepot in 2013, not only to house the works of Christoph Hürlimann’s collection, but also study rooms and four artists’ studios. Together with Jean Nouvel’s small pavilion, rebuilt on the site after Expo.02 in Murten, the three buildings form an ensemble dedicated to art, a sort of alter ego of Göschenen, a village characterised by the presence of technical infrastructures. The Kunsthalle fits into the site like an avalanche wedge: embedded in the ground, it is an element integrated into the traffic landscape of «Spazio Gottardo». A precompressed fair-faced concrete shell, only 16 cm thick, expands and contracts like an accordion, creating a kind of bulwark that houses a 12 by 20 m hall without intermediate supports. The building is designed to house only two works of art: Nature Morte – Ray by Subodh Gupta, in the foyer near the entrance, and The Collector’s House by Hans Op de Beeck, inside the pavilion. The Belgian artist’s work, an ideal archetype of art collections or reception rooms, created with the expressive means and languages typical of three-dimensional modelling, gives shape to a scene deliberately devoid of any material or colouristic effect, with homogeneous, smooth surfaces, entirely in monochrome grey plaster. The result is a disorientating space with hyper-realistic features; the whole is accentuated by the diffuse artificial light, which contributes to the alienation and excludes any contact or relationship with the real world.