or the sirens of Titan

Science meets imagination, culture meets existentialism. In his 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut explores this interplay with remarkable clarity: a tiny artifact shapes the entire course of human civilization, giving rise to seemingly meaningful realities and truths. It is a vision not unlike what we sometimes hope for from art itself—especially in times of transition or crisis, when it has the power to reshape our understanding of the world.

"R. A. W. or the Sirens of Titan" presented artistic interventions at the Appenzell Art Museum and the Ziegelhütte Art Gallery, each transforming contemporary history, the histories of thought, and human perception into form, sound, light, poetry, images, and lived experience.

Ten invited women artists responded to the powerlessness of the present moment with the transformative power of artistic creation: Judith Albert, Miriam Cahn, Valérie Favre, Asi Föcker, Agnès Geoffray, Roswitha Gobbo, Diana Michener, Martina Morger, Suzanne Treister, and Birgit Widmer.

Developed in close collaboration with the artists, the exhibition featured ten autonomous spatial tableaux across the two venues. Some consisted of newly commissioned works, while others brought together carefully selected groups of existing works in innovative installations. The thematic spectrum ranged from cultural memory, ecological critique, virtual worlds, and feminist self-empowerment to dream interpretation and a humanistic critique of science.

This thematic diversity was reflected in the wide range of media on display, including painting, video, sculpture, text-based works, photography, sound, performance, and installation. Featuring more than ninety works, the exhibition invited visitors on a journey through visual worlds in which diverse aspects of human existence and consciousness became visible, audible, and tangible.