International Snow-Art-Festival Kunstwege | Vias d'art Pontresina 2021
Bella Figura
Exhibitions Visiting the Pontresina Art Trails 2020

The Pontresina Art Trails 2020

Pontresina Cultura looks forward to welcoming you to Pontresina in summer 2020 and would like to wish you a memorable visit to the exhibition. The most important information at a glance:

  • The exhibition will be held from Saturday, 27 June, to Thursday, 15 October 2020.
  • Art Trails/Vias d’art is an open-air exhibition, and the objects can be viewed at any time.
  • Entry is free of charge. Donations are of course very welcome.
  • The 24 installations are located on Via Maistra. Download location map
  • The trail connecting all of the objects is approximately 1.6 kilometres long and takes around 1 to 2 hours. You can decide where to start your visit to the exhibition.
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Am 20. Oktober 2017 ging die Ausstellung Kunstwege | Vias d'art Pontresina 2017 zu Ende. Am 27. Juni 2020 startet die 10. Ausgabe. Die Ausstellungsmacher werfen einen Blick voraus auf ein bedeutsames Kunstprojekt. 

Kunstwege | Vias d’art Pontresina 2020

Publikationen zur Schönheit ...
Publicaziuns davart la bellezza ...
Publications sur la beauté...
Publications about beauty...

Kunstwege | Vias d’art Pontresina will keine Skulpturenausstellung, kein Symposium, kein LandArt-Event, kein Themenweg sein. Die Ausstellung dient weder der Dekoration des Dorfes noch der Unterhaltung von Einheimischen und Gästen. Die Ausstellung dient dem Diskurs, der Beförderung von Ansichten und Einsichten des Betrachters und dem Austausch von Bündner Künstlerinnen und Künstlern mit Vertretern anderer Regionen, 2020 aus der Romandie.

Der öffentliche Raum entlang der Via Maistra, der Hauptstrasse Pontresinas, ist die Bühne. Die Installationen wollen für Einwohner und Gäste kein moralisierender Spiegel sein sondern geben sich offen für eine freie Interpretation.

Teilnehmer 2020

Badel | Sarbach, Guarda GR


Pauline Beaudemont, Lausanne, Zurich


Damiano Curschellas, Brussels, Fürstentum Liechtenstein


Christoph Draeger, Umeå SWE, Klosters GR


Gilles Furtwängler, Lausanne, Afrique du sud


Gerber | Bardill, Schiers GR


Gaël Grivet, Genève


Tarik Hayward, Berlin


Gian Häne, Chur GR


Chris Hunter, Basel, Flims GR


Guillaume Pilet, Lausanne


Marie Velardi, Genève


General information

Each object is accompanied by an information board, and you can scan the QR code to use your smartphone as a guide to the 26 locations. The exhibition guide, which is available free of charge from locations 1, 5, 15, 18, 20 and 23 and from Pontresina Tourist Information in the Convention and Event Centre Pontresina, contains information about the various installations. Tip: while you are moving around the trail, you can use the Free WiFi Engadin network that offers free Internet access along Via Maistra. Download exhibition guide

How to get there

Bus/train

  • North: Engadin Bus stop: Schlossgarage; object 1 is located at the Weisses Kreuz hotel
  • Centre: Engadin Bus stop: Rondo or Punt Ota Sur; objects 7 to 12
  • South: Engadin Bus stop: Post; objects 25 to 20
  • Train station: RhB (Rhaetian Railway) stop

Car/parking

Parking spaces are available right next to the exhibition in the Rondo and Mulin public car parks or in the Bellavita Pool and Spa car park. How to find the Art Trails/Vias d’art 2020 exhibition in Pontresina

Seeing things ... through the eyes of a stranger

For this year’s exhibition, artists were asked to focus on the authentic and the genuine in the reality of today’s Engadin. The installations are the result of in-depth research into regional culture, for the most part in collaboration with experts. Distance helps us to see more clearly. The role of art is to study the essence of a thing and to make it visible and readable. It is a much greater challenge than simply answering the question “What makes a village unique, or what is typical of this region, or what sets it apart from all others?” And this is why the theme was to be used merely as a starting point, as a working title. 

The results are diverse and profound, and they reflect the reality of today. The works of art are a reflection, for example, of the loss of the basis of our existence – the soil, the permafrost and the glaciers – a representation of nature and traditions, the lives of Portuguese immigrant workers and, in contrast, the lives and legacy of past émigrés (known locally as randulins, often with the profession of confectioner). The works of art tackle the question of who has seen the Engadin through the eyes of a stranger, and who – despite varying perceptions – has found inspiration here.

The process involved in developing the 26 works of art was the same as it was 150 years ago, when artists, painters, poets, musicians and philosophers, as well as natural scientists and the first alpinists, saw the uniqueness of the Engadin, its villages and inhabitants ... through the eyes of a stranger, and made the valley’s inhabitants aware of a new authenticity and helped to attract visitors to the valley. The reality of the past, the austere mountain landscape, the rough soil, the harsh environment, the long winters – all of which made everyday life anything but easy.