ZURICH.- From 16 September to 27 November, the Kunsthaus Zürich is showing an exhibition of works from its collection entitled ‘Young Art,’ featuring a selection of acquisitions by the ‘Gruppe Junge Kunst’ (Young Art Group). Divided into three chapters, the show presents some of the most recent additions: works by Latifa Echakhch, Haris Epaminonda, Keren Cytter, Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz, Mark Manders and Lucy Skaer. The Group began acquiring art in 1970.

The Gruppe Junge Kunst is part of the Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde (VZK), the Kunsthaus’ patron association. Since 1970, with an annual budget of CHF 70,000 from VZK membership fees, it has been buying contemporary art which it presents to the Kunsthaus on long-term loan. The result is an impressive collection of sculptures, videos, installations, paintings, photographs and drawings that are now being shown in an exhibition. ‘Young Art’ is conceived as a narrative in a number of chapters, and will be accompanied by performances and other events.

EARLY PURCHASES THAT ARE NOW WORLD-FAMOUS
The acquisitions include works purchased by the Group at an early stage that are now world-famous, including pieces by John Armleder, Martin Kippenberger, Fischli/Weiss, Andreas Gursky, Olafur Eliasson and Günther Förg. But the ‘Young Art’ exhibition also revives pieces that have fallen into obscurity as well as showing works by young artists that have been bought in recent years: Keren Cytter, Lucy Skaer, Latifa Echakhch, Tobias Madison, Mark Manders, Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz, Stefan Burger, Georg Gatsas, Andro Wekua and Cat Tuong Nguyen. Haris Epaminonda, whose exhibition has had to be postponed until 2013, is also among the artists represented. Her photographs ‘Untitled (#3)/(#11)/(#34)/(#35)/(#49)’ were created in 2008 and are now receiving their first museum exhibition.

In keeping with the spirit of the Gruppe Junge Kunst, the presentation adopts an innovative format: it is designed not as a fixed, static construct but rather as a story in a number of chapters. Three alternating presentations in the cabinet display purchases from recent years (16.9.-9.10.: Latifa Echakhch, Haris Epaminonda, Keren Cytter. 11.10.-30.10.: Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz. 1.11.-27.11.: Mark Manders, Lucy Skaer).

PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST TALK
Curator Mirjam Varadinis is herself a member of the Gruppe Junge Kunst. On Wednesday 12 October at 6 p.m. she will be taking part in a discussion with the artist Pauline Boudry.

From 16 to 18 September visitors can also view a performance by the artist Cat Tuong Nguyen. His work ‘Milgram’s Wake’ depicts in physical form the clash of Asian and European cultures: He copies diagrams, pictures and fragments of text drawn from medical textbooks on the psychopathology of westerners and sews them onto scraps of clothing. The economic hardship of his former homeland, Vietnam, meets the psychological suffering of western society. Contemporary art requires commitment and reflection not only from its producers, but also from its recipients and, between the two, promoters and educators.