"POSTCARDS FROM ST.MORITZ" I
JULY 8TH - OCTOBER 15TH
VERNISSAGE SAT JULY 8TH 18:00
AN EXHIBITION THAT DIGS INTO 200 YEARS
OF POSTCARDS FROM ST.MORITZ
POSTCARDS ARE INDEED VERY IMPORTANT EYEWITNESSES OF HISTORY:
How did the Lake Side of St.Moritz look back in the 1890ies ?
What hotels vanished ? What sports, amusements and innovations where "in" ? Come by !
We challenge you to recognize everything !
This exhibition shows a careful selection of Postcards, (all but 2) from the Private Collection of Laura Ceretti, who has been collecting Postcards for the last 25 years and now counts about 1500 pieces.
This exhibition has been curated and produced jointly by Carolin A. Geist and Laura Ceretti.
The project has looked into sub-topics, that are shown on own panels:
* The Hotels: The ones that vanished or don't look the same anymore
* Postcards & Art : Postcards by Emil Nolde, Leopoldo Metlicovitz & Giovanni Giacometti
* Wintersports
* The Lakes of the Engadin
* Leisure Snaps
* Transport & Innovation on Postcards
* Traditional Dresses
LAURA TELL ME...
about your unique collection!
Laura,
how many postcards do you own by now?
1'500.
Laura,
when did you start to collect postcards
and why?
I started when i was 25 years. I actually started a collection of calligraphy pens before, when i was about 20. As in school i was taught to write with those kind of ancient feathers, i practiced training calligraphy myself as a passion, and then one came to the other, that i started to collect pieces of elderly handwritings. When i came accross some old postcards with magnificient handwritings from the Engadin,
it was then i that i had the igniting epiphany to start collecting postcards, and especially postcards from the Engadin.
Laura,
was there a strategy in your collecting?
I started to hunt down my prey in the local “brockis» and now, every time i am in Paris, Milan, London i always check out all the small boutiques that carry antiquities. For example, do you know where i got my most important postcard about ski in the in the Engadin from ? in Stockholm ! Why ? Because the first kinds of Skis in the Engadin were the Swedish Crosscountry skis.
DID U KNOW ? THE POPULARIZATION OF SKI IN THE ALPS
The English intrduced to the Alps: the Bob, the curling, the Skeleton, but not Ski and Bandi-rink.
Regarded in the Nordic countries as the oldest means of locomotion, skiing did not appear and spread in the Alps until the end of the 19th century. The first rudimentary skis were manufactured in the Engadin in 1892 in Champfèr and two years later in Pontresina in imitation of the Norwegian model. As early as 1895, Gottfried Wyss's workshop in St. Moritz was selling skis made by Jackober, a manufacturer in Glarus. After the 1920s, the first courses, the patent and the first Swiss ski school in St. Moritz were established.
Laura,
you made a movie about your postcards; how did this project start and developp?
In 2010, when i realised i had gathered such an impressive amount of postcards, my first wish was to do an exhibition with them. But the early attempts did not developp, as potential partners believed it would be too complicated to organize, especially with the insurance, and the exhibited object were said to be «too small to be displayed».
So, i thought, i’d make a movie about my treasure.
I started a collaboration with a film-maker from RAI, and after 6 months we had produced the movie “Postcards from the Engadin », along my first book about the my Postcards. Both premiered together in 2010 at the Rondo in Pontresina, where about 300 curious souls came to listen to me and Chasper Pult.
Laura,
what were the most important steps of you collecting?
In the beginning my father laughed at me devoting my time and money to old postcards. He told me – i will never get a return on investment.
The biggest rapid growth of the collection came along the invention of Ebay and the arrival of Ebay in Italy, in the early 2000s. And then with all thespecialised websites about postcards, but nearly most importantly, with the websites for stamps.
So, between the early 2000s and the 2010s i amassed through the help of the new medium, the magical internet, already too many postcards to fit my initial boxes, i already counted about 1300 around 2010, when i started working on my movie.
Laura,
you won a price for an exhibition, what was this about?
In 2011 I produced finally a very first small exhition about my collection, in Chur, at a Philatelic Fair. I won there the medal for the best show.
In a complete other sense, this event was a turning point for my collection, as i found there one of my most cherrished postcards: the Number One of the Giovanni Giacometti Series.