Harald Naegeli – Graffiti in a Museum!?

Several dozen spray figures by Harald Naegeli pop- ulated the parking garage at ETH Zurich after the late 1970s. Since 2021, an extensive renovation of the garage has taken place. Although some figures had to give way to the redesign, a large part will be retained. On the occasion of the reopening of the ETH Garage in the fall of 2022, the Musée Vision- naire put together an exhibition with objects (e.g. by Ruggero Tropeano Architects) that document the complex renovation process. As an exclusive novelty and real museum sensation, three cut-out Naegeli graffitis are on display. They were removed from the wall by a team of conservators as part of the conservation work. The largest piece measures 290 x 230 cm and weighs 450 kilograms! In addi- tion to this complex process, further conservation processes of Naegeli’s art and work related to his art took place in the ETH Garage. This work in- cludes photographs by Pascal Sigrist; a selection of his photos is on exhibition in the MV.

The exhibition “Graffiti in a Museum!?” addresses the question of art in public space and asks how the ephemeral art of graffiti can be conserved, wheth- er it should be conserved at all, and what happens when graffiti is taken out of its context. Does graf- fiti belong in a museum?
As a supplement to the exhibition, we offer guided tours through the ETH Garage in order to experi- ence the existing works on site.