The installation of The Monk represents the first time an artwork has been exhibited on the lake of St Moritz
Damien Hirst has been creating art that explores the complex relationships between beauty, religion, science, life and death since the 1980s. Now, he presents a major exhibition of over 40 works that will open in St. Moritz, Switzerland, across four locations, including the neo-classical Forum Paracelsus in St. Moritz Bad and the Protestant Church in the centre of St. Moritz, on view from January 23 – February 28 2021.
Damien Hirst, The Monk, Lake St. Moritz, 2020.
Titled Mental Escapology, the exhibition will feature works from some of Hirst’s most well-known series, including Natural History, Spot Paintings, Butterfly Colour Paintings and Mental Escapology, after which the exhibition is named. Additionally, Hirst’s 12-foot-high sculpture,The Monk, will be exhibited in the centre of the frozen Lake St. Moritz, making it the first artwork to have been exhibited on the lake itself.
Damien Hirst, The Monk, 2014.
The Monk is part of Hirst’s ‘Treasures’. This work is a testament to the opulence of the ancient world, The Monk is entirely encrusted with coral and shells, with all vestiges of the underwater world left intact. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, truth and lies, the work shows us the enduring power of myth and storytelling in the twenty-first century. The installation of The Monk represents the first time an artwork has been exhibited on the lake itself.
Damien Hirst, Crystal Violet, 2009.
The exhibition will feature works from some of Hirst’s most well-known series, including more Treasures, Natural History, Spot Paintings, Butterfly Colour Paintings and Mental Escapology, after which the exhibition is named. The exhibition, spread across indoor and outdoor sites, will engage with both the region’s spectacular landscape and some of the city’s most important spaces in which to show art, creating a dialogue between nature, the manmade, the contemporary and the historic. Mental Escapology will be Hirst’s first public exhibition in Switzerland.
The exhibition has been curated by Jason Beard, and produced by Oscar Humphries and Marco Voena.
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