Living art

Editor Soraja Hagspiel

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The exhibition ‘ALL IN: All Art. All Life.’ brings together artists who turn their own lives into an artistic practice and consciously operate outside established rules.

In the exhibition «ALL IN: Everything is Art. All Life.” at the Musée Visionnaire is not about works that end up in a museum, but about lives in which art and everyday existence merge inseparably. The works on display are idiosyncratic, non-conformist and often deliberately situated outside the established art world.

One of the most striking voices in this scene is the Zurich-based author and performer Dora Koster. She became known in 1980 with her autobiographical book *Nichts geht mehr**, in which she wrote openly about her childhood as a child in care and a foster child, as well as her experiences in Zurich’s underworld.

She appeared in public, read her texts, sold her books herself and deliberately moved between the underworld and the art world. In the early 1980s, she even stood as a candidate on a list for the Zurich youth movement and provocatively listed “whore” as her occupation. Thus, her life itself became a form of artistic disobedience: radically personal and socially uncomfortable.

On 8 April, a guided tour through Zurich’s Niederdorf district, following Koster’s footsteps between bars, cafés and places of residence. This offers an insight into how closely her writing was linked to the city and her social environment.

Erwin Schatzmann, an artist from Winterthur, also combines art with an unconventional approach to life. He became known in the 1990s for his vision of an artificial lake for Winterthur, the so-called Waldeggsee Initiative, which made it as far as a public referendum.

Today he lives in ‘Morgenland’, a settlement built from recycled materials on the outskirts of Winterthur. This place is more than just a studio; it is a walk-in total work of art, an alternative to the throwaway society and an expression of a life that consistently defies social norms.

The Musée Visionnaire also offers trips there. On 26 April, a shuttle will take visitors directly to the ‘Morgenland’, including a tour and a discussion with the artist.

The exhibition shows that disobedience is evident not only in protests or actions, but also in ways of life that consciously refuse to conform.

Published from Soraja Hagspiel on April 02, 2026.