Lightning glass and fingerprints

Why not combine art, nature and movement? The “Art Trails I Vias d’art Pontresina” exhibition locations for contemporary art extend from the Engadin valley through the Bernina region to Val Poschiavo. In addition to Pontresina, works of art can also be viewed at 11 railway stations from Punt Muragl to Cavaglia.

The free exhibitions in public spaces can be visited in any weather on foot, by bike or by public transport – train, Engadin bus and PostBus – as a hop-on, hop-off tour. You can see additional information on the Geocaching app. The Vias d’art Pontresina will continue until 19 October 2023 and are part of Swiss Post’s commitment to “Art in the periphery”.

Inspiration from the environment

One of the works (number 15) is by the duo Badel/Sarbach – more precisely, artists Flurina Badel and Jérémie Sarbach. “The work ‘E VENT I/II, 2023’ shows the relationship between living and inanimate matter. It’s about the question of how life came into being in the first place,” says Jérémie Sarbach. The impetus for the artwork was so-called “lightning glass” (rock fulgurites), which occurs in the mountains when lightning strikes, usually near the summit. The heat from the strike liquefies the rock, turning it into glass when it hardens. The duo discovered the lightning glass during a hike on the Piz Linard. “Fascinated by this unique weather phenomenon, we began to research it and learned about a possible connection between lightning strikes in ancient oceans and the origins of life on Earth,” continues Jérémie Sarbach. The installation on display at Cavaglia railway station was created from various photos of this glass. 

“We didn’t have to look far,” says Jérémie Sarbach. “The starting point of our work is our immediate surroundings.” “Spatially speaking, we don’t necessarily have to be in the same place all the time,” says Flurina Badel. “It’s important to us that each of us can contribute their own personally relevant topics. This creates a very lively and dynamic back and forth. We value and surprise each other and are always curious about how the other person takes an idea, an offer, a fragment and develops it further,” continues Flurina Badel.

Swiss Post also promotes art outside cities

The “Art Trails I Vias d’art Pontresina” and 17 other art organizers can be found on the website “discover-art.ch”. Through this website, Swiss Post provides a platform for its commitment to “Art in the periphery” and therefore for art events outside urban areas, enabling the community to be discovered and explored with a single click. 

Fingerprints in Swiss Post’s art collection

A work by the duo Badel/Sarbach has recently been added to the Swiss Post art collection. “Index Finger” is part of a group of works called “Lost Waters and Found Stairs” and consists of two relief casts with surfaces that resemble soup-like fingerprints. It contains sediments from the Aua Sana and the Inn. These come from the reliefs being stored in the stream water. After the discovery of the lightning glass on the Piz Linard, the starting point for “Index Finger” was the mountain stream that flows past the duo’s studio. “The place where we live and its surroundings and nature are part of the world, so this is also a place from which global issues can be discussed,” says Jérémie Sarbach. “Globalization and digitalization have broken down the distances between different realities of life. Suddenly everything is close,” he explains.