Media release

Basel, 7 February 2018

New exhibition entitled "Have a Seat" in the Helvetia Art Foyer

The current exhibition in the Helvetia Art Foyer invites you to sit down: Entitled "Have a Seat", it brings together artworks on the theme of sitting and seating. Works by artists including Zilla Leutenegger, Olaf Breuning, Eva Aeppli, Kurt Fahrner, Vincent Kriste, Studer/van den Berg and Rudolf Maeglin will be on show until 24 May 2018. The Helvetia Art Foyer is open on Thursday evenings and admission is free.

"Have a Seat". Dozens of people have taken up this invitation in the Helvetia Art Foyer. There they now sit, painted, photographed, stitched, modelled and projected, many on their own, others in pairs or even in groups, most of them silent. Some are posing for a portrait, others are lost in thought or immersed in a game of chess or a book.

Stories on the theme of sitting

Sitting is not only a part of our cultural history, but is also one of the most important postures in our day-to-day lives. Over the centuries, seating furniture has itself become a cultural and design object. In ancient Egypt, only the Pharaohs were permitted to sit on a throne. Sitting on chairs only gradually became the norm for the general population in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the first mass-produced seating furniture came into use in the mid-19th century with Michael Thonet's coffee house chair.

Under the title "Have a Seat", the exhibition in the Helvetia Art Foyer examines this theme and brings together artworks from its own collection dating from between 1915 and 2016. Works by artists including Olaf Breuning, Eva Aeppli, Kurt Fahrner, Vincent Kriste, Studer/van den Berg and Rudolf Maeglin will be displayed. Two multi-media loans from Zilla Leutenegger bring additional impetus to the selection. Every piece tells a story. For example, Olaf Breuning's sculpture "death can wait" features three small Grim Reapers, who are obviously in no hurry to carry out their next job and have settled down for a comfortable break on their way there. In Zilla Leutenegger's video installation "rock the chair" (2011) a woman rocks back and forth on her chair and thus ends up at a dangerous tilt. She's still holding on to the table, but how far can she lean back before the chair tips over? What programme are the two men on the red lounge sofa watching in Rudolf Maeglin's painting "On the radio" (1962)? The audience is invited to create their own stories for the pictures and objects in the exhibition.

The "Have a Seat" exhibition is open every Thursday from 4 until 8 p.m. and will run until 24 May 2018. There is no admission charge. With the rotating exhibitions in the Art Foyer, Helvetia is opening up its art collection - with over 1,700 works by around 400 artists, it is one of the most significant collections of contemporary Swiss art - for a wide audience.

Key information on the "Have a Seat" exhibition

7 February - 24 May 2018

Closed on 29 March and 10 May 2018

Every Thursday from 4 until 8 p.m.
Helvetia Insurance, Art Foyer, Steinengraben 25, 4051 Basel
Admission is free

Note for media representatives

Journalists may visit the "Have a Seat" exhibition outside of opening hours. To take advantage of this opportunity, please contact the Helvetia media unit:

Phone: +41 58 280 50 33

media.relations@helvetia.ch

Olaf Breuning, "death can wait", 2016



This media release is also available on our website www.helvetia.com/media.

For further information please contact:

Media

Helvetia Group

Jonas Grossniklaus

Senior Media Relations Manager

St. Alban-Anlage 26

CH-4002 Basel

Phone: +41 58 280 50 33

media.relations@helvetia.ch

www.helvetia.com

About the Helvetia Group

In 160 years, the Helvetia Group has grown from a number of Swiss and foreign insurance companies into a successful international insurance group. Today, Helvetia has subsidiaries in its home market Switzerland as well as in the countries that make up the Europe market area: Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain. With its Specialty Markets market area, Helvetia is also present in France and in selected regions worldwide. Some of its investment and financing activities are managed through subsidiaries and fund companies in Luxembourg and Jersey. The Group is headquartered in St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Helvetia is active in the life and non-life business, and also offers customised specialty lines and reinsurance cover. Its business activities focus on retail customers as well as small and medium-sized companies and larger corporates. With some 6,500 employees, the company provides services to more than 5 million customers. With a business volume of CHF 8.51 billion, Helvetia generated underlying earnings of CHF 491.8 million in the 2016 financial year. The registered shares of Helvetia Holding are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol HELN.

Cautionary note

This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.

This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.


Media release (PDF)
"death can wait" (JPG)



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