Travel

PROVENCE

Grand Tour of Switzerland (Hijacked), Milano to Basel

Cernobbio, Lake Como.

Jimmie Durham: Stones Rejected by the Builder, 2004. Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como.

Having Jeppe Ugelvig’s recent PROVENCE text in mind, we started with a pranzo at Osteria del Treno in Milano, founded, as the name suggests, by railway workers. 

Instead of heading to Fondazione Prada, we drove directly to Como to visit the textile archive of Fondazione Antonio Ratti, which also houses parts of the collection of conceptual art matador Seth Siegelaub. Textiles and conceptual art, two familiar ingredients.

Key pickup for La Congiunta at Osteria Gionico.

La Congiunta, Gionico, Ticino.

Once entering Switzerland we of course could not skip the Meret Oppenheim house. Like many Swiss Germans, she had a summer house in Ticino, in Carona: Casa Costanza. From there we drove to La Congiunta, Peter Märkli’s legendary concrete museum built solely for the sculptures of Hans Josephsohn. You pick up the key at a local bar and visit the building alone.

Passo del Lucomagno, then back to San Bernardino.

Polestar 4 sunroof.

Never drive through the Gotthard tunnel. Instead we turned around and headed towards the San Bernardino pass, stopping shortly before in Mesocco at The Estate and its current exhibition by Ai Weiwei (coming up on Sunday June 28th: Daniele Milvio). Like La Congiunta, The Estate operates on a self check-in basis. There is Chronic coffee on site, a small rustico nearby for artist residencies and a waterfall within walking distance.

In San Bernardino Villaggio we had to charge the car and walked thirty minutes to Alp Pian Doss for polenta lunch. Afterwards we drove over the San Bernardino pass, still surrounded by snow in June, massaging our backs with the Polestar seat function and increasingly not wanting to leave the car anymore.

San Bernardino Villaggio.

San Bernardino Pass.

Snow not on the San Bernardino Pass, but on Passo del Lucomagno, another excellent alternative.

Descending into the North side of Graubünden, we stopped briefly in Caminada’s Fürstenau for an ice cream, though for dinner we already had another destination in mind. A place near Zurich one should not publicly share: Restaurant Pöstli.

Driving at night towards Basel, we used Polestar’s enhanced pilot function and watched the stars through the enormous glass roof.

Selezione. No further comment.

Andy Warhol for Uniqlo T-shirt. The Polestar interior is 100% vegan and made from recycled materials. 

In retrospect, the perfect ending would have been a midnight visit to Pierre Huyghe at Fondation Beyeler. The idea came too late. Otherwise we would have tried convincing Sam Keller, who expanded as art fair director Art Basel to Miami and now, since 2008 already, directs Beyeler, to open the doors after hours. 

Find the complete tour here. Polestar, the new art car. 

Mobile artist's studio: suitcase and KitchenAid.