Friday Beyeler
I Hear a New World – 14 Miaows of the Future
25 years of Fondation Beyeler

As part of the celebrations marking its 25th anniversary, the Fondation Beyeler will welcome visitors until 10 pm every Friday evening from 16 September to 16 December 2022. In collaboration with the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel, the museum will open its doors to 14 evenings of Friday Beyeler. Under the heading I Hear a New World – 14 Miaows of the Future, students and artists who teach at the institute will turn the museum foyer into a creative platform for contemporary art, featuring live performances, films, talks as well as music, poetry and dance.  

Together with Chus Martínez, Head of the Institute Art Gender Nature, students have developed a programme specifically for the Fondation Beyeler, each of the 14 evenings being conceived as a small performance festival. Inspired by the former Museum of Cats, which originally occupied the grounds of the Fondation Beyeler, I Hear a New World – 14 Miaows of the Future combines art, history, poetry, music, performance and dance. The program focusses on the joint love for art and how art can provide individuals and communities with an experience of worlds more open and broader than our own everyday experiences. From Covid, to the ongoing wars, to the climate crisis—narratives and images of the impossible, narratives of narrow paths, smaller worlds and scarcity surround us.  

Video: Max Zachrisson for Fondation BeyelerFriday Beyeler

Program  

16 September 2022 The Night of Perfect Friends  
23 September 2022 On What It Really Means to Love 
30 September 2022 Surrenderings and Communions 
7 October 2022 Cats and Totalitarianism 
14 October 2022 Announcing the Age of Receivership 
21 October 2022 Uncommon Wisdoms 
28 October 2022 Chaos Magic and the Cosmic Heart 
4 November 2022 Brightening Our Own Lighting Spot 
11 November 2022 The Poetry Hour 
18 November 2022 Rivers Jumping over Mountains 
25 November 2022 The Night of Mixed Feelings 
2 December 2022 Wars Must Come to an End  
9 December 2022 Releasing All Your Powers 
16 December 2022 CLOSING NIGHT: Every End Brings New Beginnings

16 September 2022 The night of perfect friends

With Sophie Jung, Chus Martínez, Anina Müller, Ingo Niermann, Jacob Ott, Filippa Ramos, Nadiia Rohozhyna

What is there more important than friends, family, and the joy of encountering each other? We start the anniversary celebrating this feeling, paying attention to the importance of being there for one another. A programme of poetry, music and dance for and with friends.  

23 September 2022 On What It Really Means to Love

With Phoenix Atala, Wren Cellier, Sophie Jung, Quinn Latimer, Anina Müller, Ingo Niermann, Jacob Ott, Pauline Coquart, Nadiia Rohozhyna, Alessandro Schiattarella & Manuel Justo

A night dedicated to the love of art. A reflection on why we love art and artists, why the places in which we encounter art are special. Art recognises us as sentient animals that —often— are keen on experiencing joy, being generous and giving love. That is why art is fundamental.  

30 September 2022 Surrenderings and Communions

Autumn is a time of change and new beginnings. We constantly ask ourselves: are there new adventures to come? How can our lives be more exciting? Embrace and discover the change of seasons and the feelings connected to it. This night of music and poetry is a night of opening our senses to new thoughts.   

7 October 2022 Cats and Totalitarianism

The American journalist John Gunther said: “The things that Mussolini hates most are Hitler, aristocrats, money, cats, and old age.” And Hitler is often said to have despised cats. Even if there is no specific evidence for this, we could argue with a hint of humour that a love of cats, animals and nature is a love of democracy, a world of freedom, a world we want to exist in.

14 October 2022 Announcing the Age of Receivership

Many of us write more than we read. We listen less than we should. Much art has been conceived to make us trust ourselves and our instincts; even if you go wrong in your judgement, the natural growth of your inner life will gradually, over time, lead you to other insights. Art inhabits these realms.  

21 October 2022 Uncommon Wisdoms

We are getting more sensitive toward traditional knowledge passed on from generation to generation. True. We seem to have abandoned the old ways and yet, from craft to magic, the forces of vernacular cultures, the words of our great and grandparents are once more resonating lively. Art has played a role in the resurrection of wisdoms.  

28 October 2022 Chaos Magic and the Cosmic Heart

From mindfulness to magic, we humans love the very idea of rescue and escape. We know things are not that easy and still, we tend toward easy solutions. Why not? We are experiencing difficult times and need a night of magic.  

4 November 2022 Brightening Our Own Lighting Spot

Do you remember that feeling of having understood a complex theory and just a second later, that understanding escaped you? Why does everything have to be so complex and difficult to understand? Art brightens every theory of life. It creates a light in which for a second you understand everything.  

11 November 2022 The Poetry Hour

Our minds are exposed to an ocean of words through media, facts and information. All feelings that return you to essentials and lift you up are pure. That’s why we cherish a big return of poetry. 

18 November 2022 Rivers Jumping over Mountains

Some of us are rivers and some of us are mountains. Some are fluid and fully engaged with change, some prefer to be solid rocks to rely upon. Art and artists —unlike other forms of knowing the world— celebrate the co-existence of all things that form the landscape of togetherness.  

25 November 2022 The Night of Mixed Feelings

Moods should have their night too! Grumpy love, sceptical looks, awkwardness. How many times have you experienced that in a museum? Millions of mixed feelings have been mixed with love for art. Who mixes feelings and drinks better than artists?  

2 December 2022 Wars Must Come to an End

A night of peace. Be self-possessed and quiet with a feeling of peace, with the idea we can gain it for all the living. There is not much we can do to avoid wars and yet we can seek some sincere and honest communion with the feeling of peace, love life in a strange guise in this feeling, and support those suffering its consequences who fear the solitude. We can be there for them.  

9 December 2022 Releasing All Your Powers

Art releases all our powers and helps us to strengthen our consciousness and self-confidence. It helps us to understand who we are. As Rilke said: “Take the destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside.” 

16 December 2022 Every End Brings New Beginnings

We love beginnings. Beginnings of love, of seasons, of a new interest. Like art, new beginnings are magical. Again and again, newness. Whatever happens —art says— your life will find its own paths; that they may be good, productive and far-reaching is something we wish for you more than we can say. 

25 years of Fondation Beyeler