On 14 June 2026, during Zurich Art Weekend, REMAIN came to Kunsthaus Zürich for the Kerry James Marshall exhibition: a guided tour, a public panel and an apéro in the garden.
14 June 2026Kunsthaus ZürichZurich Art WeekendIn English
In the exhibition
The artist
Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall paints Black figures into the places Western painting long kept from them: the history picture, the museum wall, the canon. His figures are painted in a deep, unmistakable black, often at monumental scale, in scenes of everyday life: barbershops and beauty salons, gardens, studios, couples, picnics.
With The Histories / Geschichte(n), his work was shown in Switzerland for the first time: his largest exhibition outside the US to date, with paintings up to seven metres wide.
“…really brings in a corrective of our history writing.”
Cathérine Hug, curator at Kunsthaus Zürich
1955
Born in Birmingham, Alabama. Grew up in Los Angeles, lives and works in Chicago.
2016
Mastry, a retrospective co-curated by Dieter Roelstraete, opens in Chicago and travels to New York and Los Angeles.
2026
The Histories / Geschichte(n) at Kunsthaus Zürich, 27 February to 16 August, after the Royal Academy in London and before the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
Lead curator of the Kerry James Marshall exhibition in Zurich. Before the panel, she guided our members, partners and families through it.
Panel
Dieter Roelstraete
Curator, Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago
Trained as a philosopher in Ghent. He co-curated Kerry James Marshall: Mastry (2016) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and was part of the curatorial team of documenta 14.
Panel
Lamar Hawkins
Film director and producer
From the American South, he has lived in Switzerland for nearly twenty years. His films engage with identity, history and contemporary Black experience.
Panel
Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
Artist, producer, activist and politician
Kenyan-born and based in Switzerland, she brings questions of representation and lived experience into cultural and political spaces.
Moderator
Tallulah Patricia Bär
Founder and President, AfroSwissters
Curates REMAIN, the cultural programme of AfroSwissters, and moderated the conversation.
From the conversation
Impressions
Tallulah Patricia Bär opened with a moment of stillness and one question to each panellist: what stayed with you most strongly while walking through the exhibition?
Extract·Lamar Hawkins
“To be seen, and to have someone that recognizes me and my humanity… is something incredibly special.”
Extract·Lamar Hawkins
“When you walk across a space like Zurich, and you do not see someone that reflects you, it can be disheartening.”
Extract·Lamar Hawkins
“It feels, for the first time, like the city’s kind of opened its heart to me.”
Extract·Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
“Even today, I was tearing up because I felt so seen.”
Extract·Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
“They are unapologetically there, and they’re taking up space.”
Extract·Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
“Yes, you belong. Yes, you can take your space.”
Impression
New to Switzerland and not yet knowing her neighbours, Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo looked for a way to reach people. She learned to yodel, and found connection through it.
Extract·Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
“Art can save your life. Art can change your life.”
Extract·Dieter Roelstraete
“No doubt he is one of the single most important and influential living artists in the world.”
Extract·Dieter Roelstraete
“Mastery is an obsession, in a way.”
Impression·Dieter Roelstraete
Dieter Roelstraete described Marshall’s drive to master what he does, and joked that it extends to the ping-pong table, where Marshall has beaten him.
Extract·Dieter Roelstraete
“He doesn’t want to blow up the museum. He wants to be in it. He wants to be the painter that outpaints them all.”
Extract·Dieter Roelstraete
“…Black American lives as utterly capable of normalcy, of love, you know, picnics, dancing, music and joy.”
Extract·Cathérine Hug
“There is always this combination of complexity and joyfulness.”
Extract·Cathérine Hug
“I always like to be an advocate of discussions that would not take place elsewhere.”
Impression
Several generations were in the room: parents with their children, artists, people working in culture, and people meeting AfroSwissters for the first time.
Extract·From the audience
“Being able to walk these walls and walk these halls with my daughter, who is a Swiss child, an African-born Swiss child, here is so much relief.”
Extract·From the audience
“History, his history, is my history.”
“His paintings relate to everyone.”
Extract·From the audience
“It’s worth nothing if we only see but don’t do anything about it.”
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REMAIN at Kunsthaus Zürich, June 2026
REMAIN at Kunsthaus Zürich, June 2026
Kerry James Marshall (left) and Dieter Roelstraete at the ping-pong table. Photo: courtesy of Dieter Roelstraete
REMAIN at Kunsthaus Zürich, June 2026
REMAIN at Kunsthaus Zürich, June 2026
Cathérine Hug welcomes the audience
Questions we took home
What does it mean to be seen?
What can a museum hold beyond the work on its walls?
How do cultural spaces open up across generations?
And after seeing all of this, what do we do?
Thank you
To Kunsthaus Zürich for hosting us during Zurich Art Weekend; to Cathérine Hug, Dieter Roelstraete, Lamar Hawkins and Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo; to Ann Demeester, Hendrik Folkerts and the Kunsthaus team for joining the conversation; to Jeremy and the teams of Ale & Bread, Hearts & Tails and Pandora’s Vineyard; to Issey (House of Vader) for the music and Yves Keller for the photographs; and to everyone who stayed after the panel.
