LONDON.- Iwan Wirth, President and co-Founder of Hauser & Wirth, announced today that the gallery will inaugurate a new space in St. Moritz, in the heart of Switzerland’s Engadin Valley.

Opening in December 2018 with an exhibition of works by renowned late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz is a natural extension of the gallery’s activities in its native Switzerland. It will be Hauser & Wirth’s third Swiss location and its ninth outpost internationally. Hauser & Wirth was first established in Zurich in 1992 and, along with several of the city’s museums, became a founding tenant in 1996 of the converted historic Löwenbräu brewery building in that city’s industrial district. In 2015, Hauser & Wirth launched its second location in Switzerland, a private gallery in Le Vieux Chalet, a traditional ski chalet in Gstaad.

Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz will occupy the Palace Galerie space in the centre of St. Moritz. This 4,400 sq foot exhibition space spans three floors of a building owned by Badrutt’s Palace Hotel. Architect Luis Laplace will oversee interior remodelling of the site. Laplace has worked on numerous Hauser & Wirth projects, including the interior design of Le Vieux Chalet in Gstaad, and the restoration and conversion of Hauser & Wirth Somerset’s 18th-century farm buildings into a series of contemporary exhibition spaces.

St. Moritz has long been an enclave of creativity. The surrounding area was home to the Giacometti family and Alpine painter Giovanni Segantini. Over the course of the past two centuries, a range of cultural and intellectual figures have visited and been inspired by the Upper Engadine region, from philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, writer Thomas Mann and dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, to a host of artists including Gerhard Richter, Julian Schnabel, Richard Long, and Joseph Beuys. Legendary connoisseur Bruno Bischofberger was the first gallerist to establish a space in St. Moritz in 1963, and the region is now home to a number of modern and contemporary galleries.

In St. Moritz, Hauser & Wirth will present an annual programme of exhibitions focused upon the contemporary artists and 20th century masters it represents. A series of events and educational activities will accompany the exhibitions. The gallery will be open to the public Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm. Hauser & Wirth will also partner with Badrutt’s Palace on a number of collaborative projects to run concurrently with the exhibition programme in St. Moritz.

Iwan Wirth comments: ‘Our new gallery in St. Moritz represents a return to my earliest steps into the art world and speaks to our DNA as a Swiss gallery. I organised my first show in St. Moritz in 1987 at age 17, an exhibition that included works by Daniel Spoerri, Le Corbusier, and Marc Chagall, and took place in the Hotel Carlton. Three decades later, we are delighted and honoured to open Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz. The rich cultural history of the Engadin Valley is distinctive, coloured by many of the artistic figures that inspire our work today. We are continuing to build on the legacy of the original St. Mortiz trailblazer Bruno Bischofberger, and of such titans as Alberto Giacometti and Joseph Beuys. And we look forward to collaborating with Badrutt’s Palace on exciting artistic ventures and to introducing a new audience to the work of our artists and estates.’

Hauser & Wirth will be appointing a Director in the coming months to manage the St. Moritz gallery’s programme and activities. The Director will report to James Koch, Executive Director who oversees Hauser & Wirth’s activities in Switzerland.