Not Vital

Print: BAT (bon à tirer), printers proof

Edition of 3

Ausstellungen

• Schloss Tarasp, Friends, August 3rd, 2018 – September 1st, 2018

“Several years ago Vital was traveling in a rural part of Nepal and a man approached him and told him that his son had been very badly scalded by boiling milk (burns account for 1/3 of casualties among children since it is common for families to live in one room huts with an open fire for cooking and heating, and the children, without toys or other distractions, are attracted to the fire). The father, desperate, asked for Vital’s help.

Vital came to see the boy and then rented a bus to bring the family to the hospital in Katmandu (a six hour trip). When he returned later to see how the boy was, the family was still waiting outside because the only empty bed was in a private room which cost two dollars a day. Not arranged for the private room and returned each day to deliver medicine and visit.

Later, back in Switzerland, Vital had the idea to make 1000 unique sculptures by casting 1000 pieces of (sun-dried) cow dung in bronze and to use the proceeds from sales of the sculptures to build a burns hospital in Katmandu since 1990 he has raised more than $300,000). Vital liked the idea of turning cow dung, something valuable in Nepal (as in India) and worthless in Switzerland, into something valuable in Switzerland (though worthless in Nepal) by casting it in bronze, and by doing so he could use “good burning” to help “bad burning“ “.

Cit. Baron/Boisanté Editions, New York

Foundry Fonderia d’Arte Massimo Del Chiaro, Pietrasanta, Italy

Edition One out of an edition of 1000 (planned) individually and unique cast sculptures. This work bears the edition number: 156.

ProvenanceBaron/Boisante Editions, New York Private collection, Switzerland

Literature Markus Stegmann/Werner Meyer/Marco Franciolli, ‘Not Vital. Fat es fat, catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name in the Museum zu Allergheiligen, Schaffhausen; Kunsthalle Göppingen; Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano’, 2002, double-page colour illustration p. 34/35 (other copy of the edition), p. 90/93;

Stephan Kunz/Lynn Kost, ‘Not Vital. Univers privat’, Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur/Scheidegger & Spiess, 2017, double-page colour illustration p. 64/65;