Human and Environment – The Destroyer brings together sculptures that explore the fragile relationship between humans and nature. Created within an advanced stone sculpture course at the Scuola di Scultura, the works reveal traces of intervention, rupture and transformation – powerful, resistant and poetic.
Location: Monumento San Giovanni Battista, Gnosca
Duration: 30 May – 31 December 2026
Opening: 30 May 2026, 4:00 pm
The exhibition Human and Environment – The Destroyer presents works by artists created as part of an artistic stone sculpture course led by Hans-Peter Profunser.
At its core is an exploration of the relationship between humans and the environment – a field of tension shaped by intervention, damage and profound transformation. The sculptures translate these themes into a multilayered visual language: sometimes direct and physical, sometimes symbolic or poetic.
Stone – especially Peccia marble – becomes a dialogue partner in the creative process. Its resistance challenges the artistic work, while its materiality makes the traces of making visible.
The exhibition takes place at the Monumento San Giovanni Battista in Gnosca and is open from 30 May to 31 December 2026.
We warmly invite you to the opening on 30 May 2026 at 4:00 pm.
Artists
Armin Böttinger, Heinz Brehm, Klaus Eichler, Thomas Hassler, Randolph Koller, Jürgen Möller, Kurt Müller, Marco Paniz, Yves Portenier, Berit Schmidt-Villnow, Sabine Seum, Axel Svensson and Hans-Peter Profunser.
The exhibition was realized in collaboration with the Associazione d'animazione del Monumento San Giovanni Battista
With this presentation, the Monumento San Giovanni Battista in Gnosca hosts its 30th sculpture exhibition – a significant milestone that highlights the long-standing continuity and the special role of this site for contemporary sculpture in Ticino.
As part of the anniversary, the exhibition extends beyond Gnosca: two sculptures by Hans-Peter Profunser enter into dialogue with public space at other locations in Ticino – Hera in the courtyard of the Palazzo Civico in Bellinzona and Penthesilea at the Fondazione Gipsoteca Giudici in Lugano. These external installations strengthen the presence of the exhibition while also pointing to the wider regional resonance of the artistic work developed in Peccia.