Educational Media Reviews Online

During his artistic career, Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) created over 70 motorized “meta-mechanical” devices. Employing rusty iron and other ephemeral materials, Tinguely produced works that were spontaneous expressions of his creativity.

Five years after Tinguely’s death, the Jean Tinguely Museum was completed in Basel, Switzerland. This video documents how the museum’s architect, Mario Botta, approached constructing a venue to house Tinguely’s machine sculptures, reliefs and designs.

Interviews with Botta reveal how the architect confronted the challenges presented by Tinguely’s works, which sometimes reach heights of 30 feet. Botta describes how he created large spaces that could be divided into smaller ones, designed a subdued interior to enhance the details of Tinguely’s meta-mechanical devices, and eventually positioned the works inside the structure so that they could be admired from all sides.

Moreover, Botta describes how he incorporated the structure into its surrounding environment. The video shows how Alsatian red sandstone was quarried and polished for use on the museum’s exterior so that it would stand out from Basel’s predominantly grey-green sandstone buildings. It also records Botta’s strategies for making visitors aware of the building’s proximity to the river Rhine.

In addition to 1972 interviews with Tinguely himself, the subtitled video includes interviews with Tinguely’s widow and fellow artist, Niki de Saint Phalle, who donated many of the works to the museum. Tinguely’s assistant, Seppi Imhof, and the museum’s director, Pontus Hulten, reminisce about the artist’s working style and his relevance to modern art.

Academic libraries should consider adding this video to collections because of its versatility in instruction. Architects will find this documentary particularly helpful in learning how to present artwork in a complementary, publicly accessible way. Artists will appreciate how Tinguely relied on mechanics and motion to express his creativity. Finally, students of European culture are bound to discover the merits of a Swiss artist who left a lasting impression on modern art through his ephemeral works.