ZERNEZ.- A new major work has joined the collection in Susch and was inaugurated on July 4th. Commissioned by Grażyna Kulczyk, the founder of Muzeum Susch, Tuor per Susch (Tower for Susch) has been conceived and designed by the renowned Swiss artist Not Vital as an outdoor site-specific work. ‘I am extremely excited and proud that a new work of Not Vital, who is one of the most impressive and stimulating artistic figures deeply connected with the Engadin, has been created especially for Susch’, said Kulczyk.




Crafted from a single block of marble in the course of two years by Gabriele and Umberto Togni of Pietrasanta, the work’s arrival transforms the local landscape, with Tuor per Susch becoming the fourth tower in the village, following the historical Tuor La Praschun, erected at the turn of the 12th and 13th century, Tuor Planta, whose foundations also reach back to the 13th century, as well as the Romanesque Tower of the local church. Tuor per Susch is part of a seminal group of works by Vital that are subsumed under the term ‘SCARCH’ (a conflation of the two words sculpture and architecture, ‘SCARCH’ transcends the boundaries of both formal terms). The artist’s gained renown with his architectural landscape interventions around the world: from Niger (Makaranta, 2003) to Chile (NotOna, 2008-14), the Philippines (The Chapel, 2016), to Indonesia (House to Watch the 3 Volcanoes), 2017.

Marble, first encountered by the artist in the early 1980s in Pietrasanta, Tuscany – a town renowned for its quarries since the 15th century – is, alongside bronze, plaster, and stainless steel, a key material in Vital’s multidisciplinary practice which spans painting, sculpture and architecture extending into the local landscape.

Standing 10 metres tall on a meadow above the Muzeum’s main building, the tower, with its meticulously carved out and polished surface, explores not only the boundaries of human skill and craftmanship, but also some of the fundamental tenets of architecture as a shelter from nature. Its open shape, imposing sense of space experienced by the viewer, as well as time devoted to its creation, all connect with the daunting surroundings of this remote town situated above 1400 metres above sea level. Vital says ‘Ars una est. It is all one. While I don’t like order, I do like the harmony.'