Bechtler Stiftung

Opened in 2022, the Bechtler Stiftung is a purpose-built contemporary art museum designed to house Walter de Maria's monumental artwork, “The 2000 Sculpture,” (1992), one of the largest floor sculptures in the world. The work’s 2,000 plaster rods — each 50 centimeters long — are cast in shapes with five, seven or nine sides and meticulously arranged in 20 rows that follow a precise pattern and rhythm. Originally created for display at the Kunsthaus Zurich, the work was later acquired for the Walter A. Bechtler-Stiftung, the foundation established by the entrepreneur Walter A. Bechtler in 1955, which subsequently initiated the creation of a suitable venue, designed by the Zurich-based architecture firm EM2N, on the former estate of the Zellweger-Luwa company in Uster. The museum also displays Pipilotti Rist’s “I Couldn’t Agree With You More,” 1999, a video installation in which two overlapping projections explore Rist’s signature themes of the human body, intimacy and the tensions between consumerism and nature. Beyond its permanent displays, the Bechtler Stiftung presents temporary exhibitions by both Swiss and international contemporary artists, including notable figures such as Sigmar Polke, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sylvie Fleury, Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Behind the museum, the freely accessible Zellweger Park showcases artworks that include “Helvetia und Merkur” by Richard Kissling (1899), Sol LeWitt's “Cube” (1984/2011) and four murals by the French Op-Art artist Victor Vasarely (1971), among others.

^{Walter de Maria, “The 2000 Sculpture,” 1992, installed at Bechtler Stiftung, 2022. Photograph by Flavio Karrer © 2022 Estate of Walter De Maria}