Armand Schulthess

Over 50 years ago, the artist Ingeborg Lüscher discovered Armand Schulthess, a hermit living in a remote valley of Ticino. Shy of human company, he pursued his vision of accumulating an outdoor encyclopaedia among the chestnut trees in the woods that surrounded his house with the aim of recording all the knowledge of humankind. He wrote down what he knew on the lids of tin cans and hung them in the trees. Lüscher appeared at documenta 72 with this book, in which she kept a record of her conversations as well as the menacing moments of her encounters with Schulthess. The publication soon acquired cult status and Armand Schulthess has since acquired posthumous renown. To date, he has been presented in 35 international exhibitions.

The original book, published in facsimile with a slipcase, also describes what has since happened to his forest. Previously unpublished photographs are combined with several essays: a philosopher traces her thoughts up to the present pandemic, an art historian contextualises the work of both Schulthess and Lüscher, a Max Frisch expert takes a literary approach (Frisch modelled one of his characters after the hermit), and a psychoanalyst argues that Schulthess was not mentally unbalanced.

Edited by: Edizioni Periferia

Volume one:Softcover, 21 × 23 cm, 256 p.
Volume two:Softcover, 21 × 23 cm, 192 p.

Essays: Ingeborg Lüscher, Max Matter, Theo Frey, Harald Szeemann, Theo Kneubühler, Hans-Joachim Müller, Thomas Röske, Gérald Minkoff, Tobias Amslinger, Hayat Erdogan, Hans U. Alder, Lucienne Peiry Sophie O’Bry, Matthias Marx, Gianni Paravicini, John Bock, German.

Design: Camillo Paravicini
ISBN 978-3-907205-27-3
EUR 90.00 / CHF 95.00

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