ZURICH.- From 7 p.m. until midnight on 23 May 2009, art meets world music at the Kunsthaus Zürich when the museum invites Montreux Jazz to help stage ‘World Art meets World Music’. The evening features live music and dance as well as guided tours and discussion, all with an eye to investigating the influence of the Orient as well as of African, Japanese and South American culture on western European music and art.

Although the cultures of Africa, Asia and South America were long a closed book to Europeans, the Kunsthaus collection contains items that attest convincingly to the effect of non-European traditions on Swiss art. Artists of the 18th century were essentially armchair travellers, depending for their encounter with exotica on the accounts of explorers and liberal amounts of imagination; later generations would then actually visit these far-flung places, and come into direct contact with their inhabitants. Music, dancing, the use of paint and the practice of rituals enjoy equally high status in virtually every culture, a fact reflected by the museum’s juxtaposition of the motifs and formal repertoire of world music with those of the international art world.

Live Music with Denis Beuret
In cooperation with Fondation Montreux Jazz 2, the Kunsthaus has invited Denis Beuret B3 to perform live. The combo, which consists of Denis Beuret (trombone), Dominic Frey (percussion) and Nathalie Zweifel (piano), offer a tribute to Japanese composers Toru Takemitsu and Naohiko Kaï.

Ethiopian Sound Installation, Live Percussion and Electronics
The collection rooms at the Kunsthaus also host an homage to Ethiopian music. A sound installation presented by musicologist Marc Ismaïl demonstrates the rise of African music between tradition and creative modernity. For his live part, Christophe Fellay, a composer, musician and professor at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais whose repertoire includes jazz, rock, experimental and contemporary music, offers a sensuous and spontaneous mixture of percussion and electronics.

Afro-Cuban Dance
Accompanied by Jorge Luis on bata drums, Pablo Miguez (guitar), Alexander Febler (percussion), and the vocal stylings of Rebecca Spiteri and Roberto Pulido, Alexis Hernandez leads a medley of Afro-Cuban dances. Members of the audience are invited to join in!

Debut Prsentation of Mexican Prints
The collection of Mexican prints, donated to the Kunsthaus by the private collector Armin Haab in the 1980s, comprises works created between 1890 and 1976 by such celebrated artists as Diego Rivera, Francisco Zuniga, Chavez Morado and Jose Clemente Orozco. Conservator Bernhard von Waldkirch shows a selection of the pieces, which have not been displayed in any exhibition since their acquisition.

Hawaii with a Paintbrush: Christine Streuli
Christine Streuli recounts her sojourn in Hawaii two years ago and shows 16 works on aluminium, created by the young artist during her stay on the island. Björn Quellenberg, Head of Press and Communication at Kunsthaus Zürich, will moderate the discussion with the audience.

Exotica in the Kunsthalle Collection
Paola von Wyss takes visitors on a guided tour of the exotic motifs and genres included in the Kunsthaus collection. In addition to renowned examples drawn from the work of Delacroix and others, the ethnologist and art historian also presents orientalist pieces by lesser-known artists. By way of Klee, Gauguin and the Nabis movement, she refers to contemporary art no longer received as ‘exotic’, and thus attesting to the phenomenon of globalization.