Observatoires: Carte Blanche to John M Armleder

The Musée d'art et d'histoire, under the direction of Marc-Olivier Wahler, continues to pursue its goal of creating dialogue between cultural heritage and contemporary art. Since 2021, with its Carte blanche exhibitions it has offered artists an opportunity to engage with the museum's objects and propose new interpretations of its collection. In 2026, the museum has invited the internationally known artist John M Armleder to design an exhibition in the museum: Observatoires offers a thematic journey where each room explores a different world, including animals, abstract painting, musical instruments, and light fixtures. John M Armleder (b. 1948) is a major Swiss artist whose five-decade career has reflected many movements in contemporary art. His work is marked by the influence of Fluxus and John Cage, injecting humour and conceptual challenges and drawing from various movements such as Dada and Abstract Expressionism, while still approaching every exhibition as an unpredictable artwork in and of itself. With over 500 of his works held in the museum's collection (from his famous Furniture Sculptures to other graphic works), Armleder is the ideal curator to pursue this unique dialogue between cultural heritage and contemporary art. Armleder's works are in dialogue with ancient, modern and contemporary masterpieces, from the flowers by Jan Brueghel the Elder to graphic works of artists such as Sol LeWitt, Joseph Beuys, Robert Smithson, Salvador Dalí, and self-portraits by Ferdinand Hodler, Cuno Amiet, Henriette Rath to artists' books, including important pieces by Yoko Ono, Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, Sonia Delaunay, and Andy Warhol.