Zwischen Eis und Süden. Auf den Spuren von Nietzsche und Segantini

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Upper Engadin in the Swiss Alps became the intersection of several major cultural projects. In the area around Sils Maria, Friedrich Nietzsche developed his philosophy’s central idea of the ‘revaluation of all values’ and ‘the eternal return of the same’ during his extensive walks. It was in St. Moritz that the culture of grand hotels first spread to the high mountains, and it was from Maloja that Segantini planned a huge panorama project for the Paris World Exhibition of 1900, which never saw the light of day.
To explore the suspicion that there might be more just external similarities between these three undertakings, a group of people from the art world were invited to a meeting in St. Moritz in September 1992. Monika Müller-Hutter and Josef Felix Müller from Vexer Verlag were in attendance to reflect on a fictitious encounter between Nietzsche and Segantini in the Engadine of the 19th century while eating the largest bovista ever seen.

The booklet was published to coincide with the exhibition Schnittstellen (Interfaces), which was held on the 125th anniversary of the Heidelberger Kunstverein in summer 1994.