For the exhibition Docking Station contemporary artists were invited to work with historical artworks from the collections of the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the insurance company Nationale Suisse. In pieces created especially for this show the artists respond to selected artworks from said collections, thereby creating a varied exhibition arrangement on the upper floor of the Aargauer Kunsthaus – in the galleries usually reserved for the historical part of the museum’s collection – that reveals the freshness and richness an artistically motivated «look back» can exude.

The meshing of contemporary and historical art is based on the keen awareness young artists tend to have of their own predecessors and pioneers. Art and cultural history serve as a source of inspiration and this is in keeping with the endeavour of the Aargauer Kunsthaus to forge links between historical and contemporary art and maintain active access to its collection. For ten years now our partner in this project, the Nationale Suisse insurance company, which specialises in art insurance, has been promoting young artists who are at the beginning of their careers through an art prize. The company also owns an extensive collection of Swiss art, which is celebrating its seventy-year anniversary. These two anniversaries led to the cooperation with the Aargauer Kunsthaus and to the exhibition Docking Station, which offers visitors a unique opportunity to discover two top-class collections of Swiss art through the lens of contemporary artistic work.

Artists: Marc Bauer (b.1975), Bianca Brunner (b.1974), Philippe Decrauzat (b.1974), Klodin Erb (b.1963), San Keller (b.1971), Petra Köhle (b.1977) / Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin (b.1977), Zilla Leutenegger (b.1968), Michael Meier (b.1980) &amp; Christoph Franz (b.1982), Giacomo Santiago Rogado (b.1979), Francisco Sierra (b.1977)<br /><br /><b>Historical Works</b><br />Eva Aeppli (b.1925), Cuno Amiet (1868 – 1961), Albert Anker (1831 – 1910), Karl Ballmer (1891 – 1958), Arnold Böcklin (1827 – 1901), Ferdinand Hodler (1853 – 1918), Ernst Morgenthaler (1887 – 1962), Meret Oppenheim (1913 – 1985), Félix Vallotton (1865 – 1925), Caspar Wolf (1735 – 1783), a.o.
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