Art in motion at Fribourg’s museum

Kalpana Sunder 

Wheels within wheels… the gigantic contraption throttles into action, rattling and banging with squeaks and groans. It’s a museum like none other. The Espace Jean Tinguely in Fribourg, Switzerland, is set up in a former tram depot, with high ceilings and rustic feel, and pays homage to an artist couple- Jean Tinguely and his wife Niki de Saint Phalle. Jean, an artistic prodigy who was born in Fribourg and studied in Basel, was famous for whimsical kinetic sculptures, which he built out of scrapyard junk and metal scrap. He created gigantic art installations with tubes, iron wheels, iron bars, metal pipes, and electric motors called metamatics.

The biggest work at the Fribourg Museum is what is called Retable de l’abondance occidentale et du Mercantilisme totalitaire (Altar of Western abundance and totalitarian consumerism) where components move and rotate. Our guide, artist Valeria Caflisch, presses a large red button, which sets the installation in motion. As it creaks and groans, all kinds of household items from children’s toys and dolls, cycles, to brushes and brooms and skateboards, move around and coloured lights flash.  This was designed for a demonstration in Moscow in 1990. “This 17-feet high installation points out the consumerism of the Western world, and its wealth on the other side,” explains Valeria.

Deeper meaning 

Valeria explains that Tinguely’s works always had a deeper and hidden political message. He often made works that commented on the industrial revolution, mocked consumerist society, over-production of goods, and modern reliance on technology. One corner of the museum has black and white images of the artist in his signature blue overalls and big moustache, posing with his pretty artist wife, who was also a fashion model.

Jean trained as a decorator, creating window displays. He started off by making wire sculptures before moving on to made moving sculptures, some even self-destructing with machines hammering plates into bits, from the 50s. In 1960, he made his first important kinetic sculpture, called ‘Homage to New York’ at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, where in he used various things garnered from the scrapyards and junk shops of New Jersey, from a weather balloon to steel tubes, numerous bicycle parts and a radio. 

He was famous for creating what was called Meta harmonies, which is motorised mechanisms fitted with all sorts of different musical and percussion instruments from cymbals to cowbells. It not only made a terrific sound, but was also a stunning visual experience. He was also preoccupied with the subject of death and worked with bones and skulls. 

Niki’s Nanas

Niki de Saint Phalle, who married Jean in 1971, was a rebel, a feminist and an avant-garde artist like her husband. Twenty two colorfully painted polyester works hang on a black wall, from a salamander, a Swiss cow, to black women, perhaps inspired by the black governess she had as a kid. Niki, who was the artists’ second wife, was of French-American heritage and had worked as a fashion model. She had suffered abuse at the hands of her father and had periods of depression. She was a creative person who dabbled in theatre sets, costumes, architecture and jewelery. 

Niki was most famous for her voluptuous female forms in polyester resin, with tiny heads and oversized breasts, often black skin and in joyful poses, called ‘Nanas,’ after a French slang word for woman. Her first nanas were inspired by her pregnant friend and made out of papier-mâché, yarn and cloth. “On a deeper level, the nanas were seen as a protest against women’s second-class status in society,” explains Valerie. She was also one of the earliest artistic champions of AIDS awareness. 

She was most famous for hergigantic art installation of a colorful pregnant woman lying on her back, with her legs wide apart, at the Moderna Museum in Stockholm, made out of fiberglass with wire scaffolding, which the visitors could enter! Niki was also greatly influenced by  Antoni Gaudí’s Parc Güell and even created a sculpture garden in Tuscany and a Tarot Garden in Paris with brilliant mosaic tiles. Niki became sick and ultimately died of lung disease because of toxic fumes inhaled, while working on her polyester figures.

“Though both the artists’ works appear fun and bright, both had darker sides to their personality and work,” says Valerie as she walks us through the museum. One piece at the museum has works by both artists that move in harmony and almost symbolic of their complex relationship- it has a metal base by Tinguely with a golden serpent-swan designed by Niki de Saint Phalle. One is reminded of Jean’s words as the swan moves at the flick of a switch, “The only stable thing is movement.”

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