Invent the Future with Elements of the Past

With the idea in mind of bringing Venice to Zurich, the STEO Foundation sent 12 Swiss artists, supervised by curator Adrian Notz, to Venice between September and November 2014 for a period of two weeks. Their mission: researching the Swiss sociologist Lucius Burckhardt (1925–2003), whose work even nowadays serves as a great source of inspiration for new generations. 0The results of their Venetian research builds the foundation of the Zurich-based project 'Invent the future with elements of the past'. The 12 artists develop each a project that links to last year’s exhibition at the Swiss Pavillon in Venice, which reflects the spirit of Burckhardt implementing it into a contemporary art project. 0The title 'Invent the future with elements of the past' was created by Hans Ulrich Obrist and serves as main theme for this project. The group of artists from Zurich travel into the past, back to the times of Lucius Burckhardt’s, study of his methods and adopt them to the present, drawing a line that carries on into the future. In other words: They gain momentum in the past in order to reach the future. An artistic and curatorial strategy that exists beyond this specific project and is also