Harald Szeemann's 1978 Monte Verità Exhibition and Its Legacy

The Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland, originally Monte Monescia, has a rich history beginning in 1899 when Henri Oedenkoven and friends founded a naturist, theosophical, vegetarian community. Intellectuals like Hermann Hesse, Carl Gustav Jung, Karoly Kerényi, and Filippo Franzoni visited. Notable buildings include Casa Anatta (1905) and Villa Semiramis (1909). In 1920 Oedenkoven left for Brazil; in 1926 Baron Eduard von der Heydt acquired the site, commissioning Emil Fahrenkamp to design a Bauhaus hotel. Upon the baron's death in 1964, the complex passed to Canton Ticino with a mandate for cultural events. In 1978, curator Harald Szeemann created the exhibition "Le mammelle della verità" about the site's history, an immersive installation of 975 objects now housed at Casa Anatta, currently under restoration by Bruno Reichlin and Gabriele Geronzi. Since 2007, the Monte Verità Foundation, together with ETH Zurich (which runs a conference center there), preserves Szeemann's archive related to that Gesamtkunstwerk. The site offers accommodation in the Bauhaus hotel, Villa Semiramis, Casa Monescia, Casa Gioia, and Casa Marta, and dining at Ristorante Monte Verità, which serves vegetarian and vegan options.