Sommerlaboratory ALP

The St. Moritz Cultural Foundation, in close collaboration with the artistic director (Mareike Dittmer) and the artistic advisory board, invites five artists, authors, and researchers to share their knowledge and experiences with a group of 10 students at the ALP Summer Lab and to expand upon them through dialogue.

The artistic director develops the thematic framework of the summer lab together with the selected artists. Students are selected through an open call and receive support for accommodation and travel expenses.

ALP is an alpine laboratory for applied experiments that aims to create a “safe space”—a place for open-ended dialogue where participants seek answers to open questions together (even if those answers may contradict one another), share ideas in progress, and explore new ways of thinking and imaginative worlds.

An interdisciplinary group of invited artists and students is given the opportunity to spend time together. Time that is so often lacking to devote oneself to fundamental questions and ideas in an open-ended exchange with one another, for “thinking without railings,” as Hannah Arendt called it.

The first edition of ALP 2026, titled “Alpine Landscapes of Perception,” explores the landscape as a space of perception. Working in their respective media

Alexandra Bachzetsis / performance
Piet Baumgartner / film
Fabian Gutscher / sound
Sara Masüger / sculpture, spatial installation
Maya Minder / photography, video, film, performance

the artists collaborate with students to develop an archive of ideas, thoughts, concepts, perspectives, and connections. The public programs developed from this (workshops, guided walks, lectures, and discussions) are open to all interested visitors, allowing the public to witness and participate in the process and creating space for new connections, interactions, formats, target audiences, and expansions. The documentation of these collaborative activities gives rise to an archive of ideas, thoughts, concepts, and connections that benefits both the region and the entire world.