Projects

Many psychiatrists across Europe collected the artwork made by their patients. The works were used to explore questions surrounding mental diseases or were compared to the works of the avant-garde. These works are astoundingly diverse and complex. It is highly rewarding to collect them as documents from the lives of persons severed from society, and to bring these works into the public domain. They are condensed statements on what was deemed to be normal around 1900 and how normality was negotiated at the time. 

From 2006 to 2014, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Institute for Cultural Studies (Prof. Sigrid Schade), hosted a research project entitled “Preserving Special Cultural Treasures.” Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, a team of researchers surveyed the artworks created by the inmates of Swiss psychiatric hospitals in the period between 1850 and 1930. Comprising over 5,000 works, the resulting image database is now publicly accessible at the Swiss Institute for Art Research. Historical collections of such works were found in 19 of the 25 mental institutions in Switzerland. Some established small museums to exhibit the works, because at the turn of the century such art and the issues associated with it attracted great interest among psychiatrists and the wider public: questions concerning mental illness, perception, and the imagination were as common as comparisons with the “primitive” and the avant-garde. Artworks produced by patients were collected or assembled for exhibition across Europe. The surviving case files and patient records, now often housed in state archives, contain drawings or photographs of objects. Long neglected, these complex documents from the lives of individuals cut off from society are very much worth collecting and preparing for display.

Projectmanagment: Prof. Dr. Katrin Luchsinger, Research associates: Iris Blum, lic. phil., Jacqueline Fahrni (Projekte I und II), Florence Choquard Dr. phil. (Projekt II), Isabelle Dessort-Baur, Anita Rufer (Projekt I). Database: Swiss Institute for Art Research (Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, SIK-ISEA), Zollikerstr. 32, Zurich, Monday – Friday, 13 30-17 30. You can find the inventories as a pdf also on this website (look under “Sammlungen”).

Both the projects „Bewahren besonderer Kulturgüter“ I and II are sponsored by the Schweizerischen Nationalfonds/DORE; 2007 and enjoy the patronage of the Swiss UNESCO Commission. 

BEHIND WALLS
Photography in Psychiatric Institutions from 1880 to 1935

Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Katrin Luchsinger, Stefanie Hoch (eds.)

Exhibitions

Sammlung Prinzhorn, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg
24. 3. bis 31.7.2022

Kunstmuseum Thurgau
2.10.2022 bis 16.4.2023

Psychiatrie Museum Bern
26.5.2023–April 2024

With catalogue D/E, see Publications

Extraordinary! Unknown Works from Swiss Psychiatric Institutions around 1900
Exhibition and accompanying program

Exhibitions

Sammlung Prinzhorn, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg
11.10.2018 bis 20.1.2019

Kunstmuseum Thun
9.2.2019 bis 19. Mai 2019

LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Linz
7.6.2019 bis 18.8.2019

Interview about the Exhibition

Accompanying program

Workshops / Science Café / Semester project “Atelier inclusive” / Conference: “Raw Art?”, Zurich University of the Arts, June 10, 2019

With catalogue D/E, see Publications
Supported by SNF/Agora, Pro Helvetia

Auf der Seeseite der Kunst. Werke aus der Psychiatrischen Klinik Münsterlingen 1894–1960

Exhibitions

Museum im Lagerhaus, St.Gallen
2.12.2014 bis 8.3.2015

Staatsarchiv Thurgau, Frauenfeld
1.4.2015 bis 22.5.2015

With catalogue, see Publications

Rosenstrumpf und dornencknie. Werke aus der Psychiatrischen Pflegeanstalt Rheinau 1867–1930

Exhibitions

Museum im Lagerhaus, St. Gallen
1.12.2010 bis 13.3.2011

Medizinhistorisches Museum der Universität Zürich
2011

With catalogue, see Publications

Der Himmel ist blau. Werke aus der Sammlung Morgenthaler
Accompanying the exhibition «Adolf Wölfli Universum. Eine Retrospektive»

Exhibitions

Kunstmuseum Bern
1.11.2008 bis 18. Mai 2009

Publikation: Pläne. Werke aus psychiatrischen Kliniken in der Schweiz 1850–1920, see Publications

Zurich University of the Arts, Bachelor of Arts in Education

Semester project “Atelier Inclusive”: On Working and Exhibiting Eye to Eye

Zurich University of Arts has opened its doors to get students on the BA program in education to team up with artists with special needs so they can swap ideas as equals. Artists and young scholars work together and develop methods of collaboration.

A project by
Stefan Wettstein, Christian Vetter, Katrin Luchsinger

Assistants
Matthias Graber, Michelle Schuhmacher, Matthias Sohr

In cooperation with the studios for artists with special needs

Atelier Tilia, Rheinau

Kubeis, Kunstwerkstatt an der Lorze, Cham

Stiftung RGZ Rauti

Stiftung Züriwerk, Hunzikerareal

wohnstätten zwyssig

Atelier Rohling, Bern

Heimstätten Wil und Living Museum Wil

Adult education center, Zurich

Jonne van Galen, Katrin Luchsinger, lecture on “Outsider Art”

With lectures by Paul Hoff Prof. Dr. Dr., Monika Jagfeld, Dr., Katrin Luchsinger, Dr., Geraldine Wullschleger