The Flims Rockslide and its reflection in art

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Monica Studer, Christoph van den Berg: Rockfall, 2007 Heliogravure, aquatint on paper, Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur buendner-kustmuseum.ch

Markus Schwander: Flims Studies, 2012, wall collages Andreas Renatus Högger (1808-1854), Rockslide at Felsberg, 1843-45, watercolour and pen, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen buendner-kustmuseum.ch

Mathias Balzer (1932-2012): Stone landscape (5 parts), 2000 / 2001 Dry point etchings on Zerkall handmade paper, Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Gereon Lepper (*1956): Call of the mountains, 1999 Steel, stones, motor buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Andreas Renatus Högger (1808-1854): Rockslide at Felsberg. The first three landslides of 11 October 1844, observed from below, 1844 Pen and watercolour on paper, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Roman Signer: Rockfall in bottle store, 2012 Wood, bottles, stone buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Robert Smithson: Rundown, 1994. Film by Jane Crawford and Robert Fiore Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (eai), New York York © 2012, ProLitteris, Zürich buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Naoya Hatakeyama: Blast 5416, 1998/99 Cibachrome, DZ Bank art collection in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Dominik Zehnder: Inverse, 2012 Plaster cast buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Markus Schwander: Flims Studies, 2012, Collages buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Mark Boyle (1934-2005), Joan Hills (*1931): Swiss series I: Study of elemental forces, 1978/79 Museum of Art, Lucerne buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

Markus Schwander: Nr 77 The Frank Slide Show 2008-2012 Print on photographic paper buendner-kunstmuseum.ch

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In the biggest ever landslide in the Alps nearly 10,000 years ago, more than nine cubic kilometers of rock slid down the mountainside in canton Graubünden. A new exhibition entitled Rockslide as Preparation, Conserved Motion at the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur (Graubünden Art Museum), shows artists' attempts to depict the event.

The exhibition is linked to a project of the same name at the Bern University of the Arts backed by the Swiss National Science Fund. The word “preparation” is used in the sense of an object prepared and conserved for museum display. A research team and 16 artists tackle the problem of enabling viewers to see and experience the rockslide.
Debris from the slide buried the area between Ilanz and Domat/Ems, a distance of about 20 kilometres. The Rhine now flows through it, carving out the spectacular Rhine gorge.
(Photos: Bündner Kunstmuseum)