Two New Books Explore Harald Szeemann's Curatorial Legacy

Johan & Levi has released two volumes dedicated to Harald Szeemann (Bern, 1933 – Tegna, 2005), the influential Swiss curator. The first, "Harald Szeemann. Un caso singolare" (2021), is a long interview conducted in 1988 by French sociologist Nathalie Heinich, a CNRS research director. Heinich visited Szeemann at his studio on Monte Verità, a site of historical, artistic, and political significance. In the interview, Szeemann describes his profession as an "agency for spiritual work abroad in service of a possible museum of obsessions," emphasizing that a museum of obsessions cannot be realized—it is a mental museum. He curated landmark exhibitions like "When Attitudes Become Form," which launched artists such as Richard Serra, Joseph Beuys, and Mario Merz. Szeemann saw the curator as an author who leaves a mark, creating museums of ideas rather than masterpieces. The second book, "La Mamma" (2021), edited by Pietro Rigolo, is a study based on archival documents, interviews, and unpublished notes from the Szeemann archive in Locarno. It analyzes exhibitions planned in the 1970s, notably "La Mamma," which later inspired the 2015 show "La grande madre" at Palazzo Reale in Milan. The books underscore Szeemann's approach: working with artists not as collaboration but as a continuous dialogue where the curator does not influence the artwork.