USTER.- The Best, The Rest, and The Unexpected Guests, curated by the artist Lorenza Longhi, combines selected works from the collections of the Bechtler family with works by contemporary Swiss artists. The focus is on Longhis subjective view of the collections, whereby her artistic perspective reveals surprising references within the diverse selection of works. Looking back on the collecting activities of the Bechtler family, the exhibition includes key works from the 1960s to the present day and invites a fresh dialog by contrasting them with current positions.
The retrospective on the collection activity of the Bechtler family encompasses key works from the 1960s to the present and creates a lively dialogue through the contrast with con-temporary positions, going beyond a mere coexistence. Longhi invites visitors to enter the exhibition space of the Bechtler Stiftung as guests. Through her deliberate selection and ar-rangement of the works, Longhi brings the ordinary into the absurd, blurring the boundaries between art and everyday life.
A lamp that bathes the space in warm light seems to do more than just illuminate: it becomes part of a larger narrative that reflects the tension between artwork and everyday object within the context of collecting. A bench, a shoe rack, or an abstract painting on the wall — all these objects reference the idea of the interior as infused with art, as a “domestication of art,” which here connects the public with the private and vice versa. Wild animals become pets through domestication, and the collected art becomes part of the domestic living space. Symbolically representing this is the Pudel by Katharina Fritsch, which promotes the exhibition and is meant to welcome visitors with joyful anticipation.
Through materiality, chosen motifs, and the method of presentation, the works evoke memories. Like flipping through a scrapbook, a dialogue emerges between past and present, between what we preserve and what we forget. But what stories do the objects tell? What remains, and what is forgotten?
Artists in the exhibition: Mitchell Anderson, Kathryn Andrews, Janine Antoni, Ruedi Bechtler, Anthony Caro, Walter De Maria, Ida Ekblad, Cédric Eisenring, Fischli / Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Katharina Fritsch, Anya Gallaccio, Liam Gillick, Jasmine Gregory, Bernhard Hegglin, Louise Lawler, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Mario Merz, Sveta Mordovskaya, Sarah Morris, Kaspar Müller, Pamela Rosenkranz, Josh Smith, Simon Starling, Christopher Wool, Urban Zellweger.
