La roue =
c'est tout.

For the first time since the Museum’s founding in 1996, a new permanent exhibition has been created on the basis of its own ever-growing collection. Supplemented by loans of key works, it offers a comprehensive overview of Tinguely’s oeuvre that takes his claim «La roue = c’est tout» as its leitmotif: as well as being a recurring theme throughout his career, the wheel also stands for his belief that changing times should find expression in art.

The new permanent exhibition also focuses attention on Tinguely’s performances and happenings, and on the joint projects he planned and realized with his artist friends. They took him out of his studio, from Paris via London to New York and into the Nevada Desert, from Stockholm via Milan and Milly-la-Forêt back to Basel. Planning sketches, photographs, and film footage as well as surviving fragments underscores the diversity and ingenuity of Tinguely’s work. His performances and projects were both amusing and provocative, as well as defying the conventions of art history.

As a special highlight, a key work from the 1960s is going on show for the first time in over twenty years. L’Éloge de la Folie exemplifies the many collaborations in which Tinguely as involved. Like a gigantic shadow play, the flat black gear train measuring 5 x 7.5 meters is eye-catchingly lit from behind. Originally, the work served as part of the stage set for a ballet of the same name that premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris in 1966. Back then, a dancer set the cogwheels in motion by pedaling. Today, this task is performed by an electric motor, but the mutual dependency of human and machine is expressed poetically by a human silhouette.

Finally, Tinguely’s work of the 1980s features on a newly constructed mezzanine floor. This material is often dark and religious in character, a consequence of Tinguely’s engagement with the themes of death and transience. These aspects also fed into his lifelong fascination with motor racing, prompted by its perfect combination of human and machine, but also by the latent danger of crashes, chaos, and death. His frequent visits to Formula One races were also a source of raw materials; as well as animal skulls, his late machines often included fragments of damaged racing cars.

A wall display at the entrance to the museum offers a new way in for families and visitors with kids. Appealing to multiple senses, it makes suggestions for an inspiring visit and gives insights into the museum’s art education programme.

The museum also offers ‘parcours trails for families' shortly that allow the artworks in the collection to be explored in playful ways designed to be thought-provoking for young and old.