THE TIME: Ms. Fetzer, you are the director of the art museum Lucernein a city that itself looks like a painting: the picturesque old town, Lake Lucerne, the Alps in the background. Why do we need a museum with beautiful pictures?
Fanni Fetzer: The competition with the beauty of the landscape is really tough in Lucerne. When you come out of the train station you are almost killed by it. Maybe a steamship is just coming into the harbor. That’s why I love it when it rains.
TIME: Because then not only art lovers but also tourists come to you?
Fetzer: Yes! We see ourselves as part of the tourism infrastructure. Individual travelers come to Lucerne for two or three days. They go on a boat trip, take the train up Mount Pilatus, attend a classical concert in the KKL Culture and Congress Center in the evening – and come to us during the day Art Museum over, which is housed in the same house.
TIME: What does this mean for your work?
Fetzer: In the summer, when most guests are here, we tailor our program to them and put on exhibitions that are very accessible and bring joy to many. In spring we are more of an art gallery and show more experimental art. At the end of the year we present art from Central Switzerland.
TIME: In high season, up to 280 coaches stop in Lucerne every day. Do they come to you?
Fetzer: No, nobody comes from them. The travel agencies that sell these arrangements rely on attractions that don’t change: the Lion Monument, the Chapel Bridge, the jewelry stores. If you have art in your program, then go to the Rosengart Collection, where the same famous works of art can be seen all year round. As a museum that changes its exhibitions every three and a half months, we don’t fit into the concept. Individual travelers come to us.
TIME: Is that why you only offer your audio guides in German, French and English – and not, for example, in Chinese?
Fetzer: Our guests speak English. Many come from India or South America and travel as larger families. When they come to us, they first buy just one ticket, have a family member test the exhibition – and only then buy the remaining tickets.
TIME: If they even find the entrance to your museum. One could mistake it for a back entrance to the KKL.
Fetzer: The house is a gift – and also a problem. In other museums, the architecture already shouts: “I am a museum!” and you stumble straight into it. That’s different for us. At the same time, it helps us enormously that Jean Nouvel, a world-famous architect, built the house. Sometimes our guests don’t know much about Lucerne or Switzerland, but they have heard about it “building by Jean Nouvel” most beautiful Lake Lucerne Heard and want to see it!
