An exhibition in Ascona dedicated to the connection between Niele Toroni and Harald Szeemann.

From March 16 to May 11, 2025, the Municipal Museum of Modern Art in Ascona, Switzerland, will pay tribute to Niele Toroni (Muralto, 1937) with the exhibition Homage to Niele Toroni and Harald Szeemann, which explores the connection between the artist and Harald Szeemann (Bern, 1933 - Locarno, 2005), one of the most influential curators of the 20th century. The exhibition, curated by Bernard Marcadé coincides with the Swiss artist’s 88th birthday and is part of the larger retrospective Niele Toroni. Impronte di pennello No. 50 dal 1959 al 2024, scheduled from March 16 to August 17 at the Museo Casa Rusca in Locarno. Toroni, who was born in Muralto in 1937, is now internationally recognized for a radical and consistent artistic path, which has led him to exhibit in leading institutions such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Kunsthaus in Zurich and the Venice and São Paulo Biennales. Numerous awards have been received, including the Meret-Oppenheim and Rubenspreis.

The exhibition in Ascona focuses on the relationship between the artist and Szeemann, evidenced by the historic 1991 solo show held precisely at the Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna. That was Toroni’s first exhibition in Ticino and sanctioned a profound dialogue between the painter and the Swiss curator, whose unconventional approach marked the history of contemporary art. Through paintings, documents, photographs and testimonies, the exhibition traces the collaboration between the two, restoring a renewed reading of the mural works still visible inside the museum. In particular, the itinerary highlights Toroni’s permanent intervention in Ascona, Brush Imprints no. 50 repeated at regular intervals of 30 cm. An emblematic work of his research, based on a rigorous and methodical gesture: applying brush imprints number 50, spaced exactly 30 cm apart, on different surfaces.

The practice, which might appear repetitive, is actually a statement of principle: Toroni does not abandon painting, but reduces it to a series of essential gestures, eliminating any narrative or expressive intent. His refusal to conform to the expectations of the pictorial tradition results in an anonymous and mechanical process that overturns the very concept of artwork and authorship. In this sense, Toroni’s work also confronts the ideological and social role of the artist, opposing the commodification of art imposed by the capitalist system. The exhibition catalog will be published by Homage to Niele Toroni and Harald Szeemann and Edizioni Casagrande for the Essays series.

“The method that Niele Toroni, in his thirties,” wrote Harald Szeemann, “applies for the first time in Paris, in a joint event with Buren, Mosset and Parmentier, is simple, easily imitated by others, but, like all simple things, very complex, full of life, full of surprises, full of perfidy, full of play.”

Practical information

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 12 noon; 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Admission: full 10.- chf/eur; reduced 7.- chf/eur

An exhibition in Ascona dedicated to the connection between Niele Toroni and Harald Szeemann.

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