Esther Eppstein - Message Salon

Esther Eppstein is an artist and art educator and a pivotal figure in Switzerland’s cultural life. From 1996-2013 she ran her message salon in Zürich, a space for experimental art that soon became a legend and an institution. It was located in various buildings, all of them bound for demolition, and 1998/99 also in an old caravan. The caravan was later purchased by the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art in Zürich for its permanent collection. Throughout its seventeen years, message salon was a cultural beehive humming with artists and art lovers. This new book is a review of the message salon’s entire existence and a gallery of people making it what it was: young artists, whom Eppstein offered a first chance to present themselves, the more established ones who could re-invent themselves in this laboratory, and also the public and celebrities who came to admire, experience, and to see and be seen. Richly illustrated with some 800 photographs, Esther Eppstein – message salon is also an homage to an extraordinary personality. The essays tell the story and reflect on the significance of this unique social sculpture. Text in English and German.