06/08/2012

Summer’s End at St.Moritz Art Masters

Summer’s End at St.Moritz Art Masters

The Upper Engadin is an inimitable mix of sun, mountains, lakes and parks. A natural paradise with a landscape that leaves you breathless, where relaxing, doing sports, but also enjoying a cosmopolitan atmosphere is everyday pleasure. For five years now this beautiful region, besides the wonders of nature, proposes a festival devoted to art and culture named St. Moritz Art Masters (SAM). The initiative, conceived by the versatile Monty Shadow – photographer, international event-maker, marketing manager and creative advisor of many luxury brands – and curated by Reiner Opoku, offers 35 free exhibitions scattered around the region also thanks to its parterre of notable “partners in Art”: Bank Julius Baer, Cartier and Mercedes-Benz.


Museums, cultural institutions, well-known international galleries, traditional 5-star hotels as well as public squares will host the shows of 42 contemporary artists coming from all around the world. Special guest of this anniversary edition will be Brazilian art and culture; among the representatives, in addition to the writer Paulo Coelho, one for all, the great artist Vik Muniz.

The works of the Swiss duo Lutz & Guggisberg, Tom Sachs, Mimmo Rotella, Hamish Fulton, Bettina Rheims, Albert Watson and many more will be on view from 24th August to 2nd September along with a tight programme of collateral events. One event especially worth of mentioning is the photography workshop held by Steve McCurry and the Engadin Art Talks/E.A.T. led by – no less than – Hans Ulrich Obrist (co-director of the Serpentine Gallery London) and Beatrix Ruf (director of the Kunsthalle Zurich).


The synergic union between art and nature seems to be very fruitful, and here in the Upper Engadin it finds year by year new followers among international art players and lovers. But since it’s widely known that St. Moritz is synonymous throughout the world with chic, elegance and for the snobs, we want to introduce you another project, which – maybe without SAM’s glamour allure and with a more genuine concept – involves the words Art and Nature. Dolomiti Contemporanee, visual art lab on location is an experiment of sharing, founded almost one year ago by young and willing people who by exploiting the idea of artist residences aim at discovering places surrounded by marvelous natural landscapes, creating a network of cultural exchange.

We’ll get back to DC very soon. In the meantime we wish you a happy art summer because we know: from Manifesta to Kassel; from Kassel to Basel; from Basel to St. Moritz and from there to Dolomiti, art spinning tops never stop!

Monica Lombardi