Engadin Art Talks (E.A.T.) is a non-profit foundation and serves as a multidisciplinary platform that facilitates meaningful discourse among artists, curators, scholars and the audience. The platform’s intention is to manifest diverse voices in order to cross-pollinate knowledge and share insights, ideas and perspectives that lead to innovation, awareness and connection. E.A.T. explores themes in contemporary art and its role in society, addressing topics that foster relevant ideas for a positive, social change. Our mission is to build collective knowledge and valuable relationships. To promote creativity with presentations and discussions that inspire and encourage new ways of thinking about art and culture.
Since its foundation, E.A.T. has featured more than 330 international speakers and contributors, to share their expertise around relevant topics that define our present and shape our future. Besides the yearly event in the Engadin, E.A.T. collaborates with international institutions in Paris and London throughout the year to pursue its mission abroad.
The region of the Engadin has always been a magnet point for writers, philosophers, and artists, who find inspiration in its surrounding natural beauty. It offers a wide range of cultural highlights, a vast number of public artworks such as by James Turrell, Lawrence Weiner, Tadashi Kawamata, and Martin Kippenberger in Zuoz, as well as artist residency programs, museums, and internationally recognized galleries.
The correspondence between the members of the Crystal Chain, a group comprising twelve architects and artist established in winter 1919 by Bruno Taut, provides a theoretical basis for E.A.T., as well as the theme of the first event in 2010. After the First World War, the members of the group wanted to develop new ideas and utopias, and thus establish the foundations for an architecture of the future. The medium they used to communicate was a chain letter in which ideas, drafts and drawings were circulated and discussed under pseudonyms. Their aim was to foster belief and community symbolically through (imaginary) ceremonial buildings.
E.A.T. was founded by Cristina Bechtler in collaboration with Hans Ulrich Obrist.
The Engadin region is renowned throughout the world for its magnificent scenery, winter sports and the glamour of St. Moritz. What is often forgotten, however, is that the Engadin was always a prominent location for many writers, philosophers and artists who found inspiration through its surrounding, natural beauty.
