Stranger Than Paradise

The title Stranger Than Paradise refers to this ambivalence: paradise appears as a cultural motif and as a projection surface for individual pictorial worlds – as a place of longing, a place of retreat and a stage for exuberant fantasy, but at the same time also as a fragile fiction. In Naïve Art and Art Brut, paradise is a recurring motif, also as a place of longing for inner refuge.

The exhibition questions the idea of paradise as a harmonious natural idyll, an ideal couple or a heavenly place. It shows: Paradise is a fragile fiction. On display are works by Pietro Angelozzi, Anny Boxler, Aloïse Corbaz, Emil Graf, Hans Krüsi and Konrad Zülle, among others.

In the cabinet, textile researcher Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols presents miniature textile gardens. Magnificently designed, they glitter and sparkle in the light. Their shadows make the gardens grow and fill the room. Here you can lose yourself in the illusion of a paradise. The Hortus conclusus is a protected place of purity and beauty. In today’s understanding of a mindfulness garden, it serves as a retreat in contemplative silence.

The carpet collage was created for the open art museum’s special exhibition at Olma 2025 and was designed by students and alumni of the GBS St. Gallen College of Design, under the supervision of Markus Pawlick, Head of the Higher Vocational School (HF) Product Design course.

Ticketshop

Following the successful carpet auction on Sunday 3 May, a few remaining pieces (2 m wide, 1 m long) are still available at a fixed price of CHF 250 per piece and CHF 400 for a set of two (two adjoining pieces).

You can see exactly which ones these are in the photo gallery below. If you are interested, please contact us by email at info@openartmuseum.ch.

The carpet, in all its glory and uncut, can be viewed in our exhibition until 7 June. Once the exhibition ends, the carpet will be cut up and will be ready for collection by its new owners from 1 July.

Hortus conclusus is the Latin term for “closed garden”, which was often used in art and literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance as a symbolic term for the purity and protection of the Virgin Mary. Garden culture is ancient; people have been cultivating plants as food and medicine since time immemorial. In ancient Persia, the enclosed garden, i.e. the garden within a wall, was a highly valued art form that required a great deal of care and attention. These oases were also an important form of courtly and monastic life in the Middle Ages. They were secluded gardens where you could stroll, observe and relax. Colors, shapes, scents, sounds and touch play an important role in these gardens, which appeal to all the senses. Magnificent flowers, perfect fruits and healing herbs grow here, all under the influence of clean, clear water. A paradise in the smallest of spaces.

Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols was born in Basel. In 1976 she moved to New York and worked at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of the City of New York and other American museums. Since 1984 she has worked in Italy as a curator, conservator and exhibition designer at the Galleria del Costume, Palazzo Pitti (Florence), Palazzo Braschi (Rome), and the Museo della Moda (Gorizia), as well as in other museums. She has also taught design and textile history at the universities of Florence, Trieste and Rimini.

Her research focuses on medieval and Renaissance burial dresses, including those of Eleonora of Toledo, the Malatesta and Della Rovere families, Osanna Andreasi, Aragonese burial dresses from Naples, as well as 17th to 19th century burial finds from the Marche and Emilia Romagna. Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols also specializes in the history of lace and its production and was appointed to the St.Gallen Textile Museum in 2016 to work on the extraordinary lace collection there. In addition to her research activities, she is an haute couture embroiderer and creates works using the bobbin lace technique, which she has exhibited in Europe. She has lived in Basel since 2019 and has been working as a curator at Galerie Praxis, Basel, since 2022.

Designer Markus Pawlick is the course director for Industrial Design at GBS, the Higher Technical College for Design in St. Gallen. Under his guidance, students developed an artistic installation for the special exhibition at the open art museum at the Olma trade fair in St. Gallen, comprising a huge carpet collage featuring image excerpts from the museum’s own collection, photo walls and interactive elements. An art museum at the Swiss trade fair for agriculture, food and commerce may seem unusual, but the connection is obvious. Many of the artists in the museum’s collection come from rural backgrounds themselves – cows, alpine pastures and local customs feature prominently in their work.

In the interview, Markus Pawlick talks about how the carpet came about, the idea behind it, the creative process and the public’s reaction.

The historian Stefan Sonderegger conducts research into the historical development of rural society. Sonderegger is involved in various roles promoting culture and history – as President of the Appenzell Folklore Foundation and the Heiden Historical and Antiquarian Society, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Steinegg Foundation, and as Vice-President of the cross-regional Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings. Sonderegger was also head of the municipal archives of the City of St. Gallen. In addition to the rural economic and social history of Appenzell in particular, Sonderegger researches topics relating to the history of the City of St. Gallen and the agricultural specialisation in livestock farming in Appenzell.

In this interview, Stefan Sonderegger discusses the distinctive features of Appenzell peasant painting, its origins and history, and how it differs from naïve art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols is a textile researcher and artist. Since 1984, she has worked in Italy as a curator, conservator and exhibition designer at the Galleria del Costume in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, the Palazzo Braschi, Rome, and the Museo della Moda, Gorizia, as well as at other museums. As part of the exhibition, Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols is presenting the installation Hortus Conclusus – a group of delicate miniature gardens – in the Kabinett of the open art museum. Magnificently designed, they spin, glistening and sparkling in the light. Their shadows enlarge the gardens and fill the room.

Im Interview spricht sie darüber, wie sie zur Idee der Installation kam.

Sunday, March 15 from 11 a.m.

All are cordially invited, with aperitif.
The exhibition will open with a talk with textile researcher Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols, and the opportunity to rediscover gardens of paradise with her and walk the Olma carpet together.

Sunday, March 15 from 2 p.m.

Children’s vernissage – we make little miniature gardens atthe start of spring. With art educator Isabell Krähenmann.

Exhibition tours are offered on the following dates:

Wednesday, April 8 at 6 p.m.
Sunday, April 12 at 11 a.m.
Wednesday, May 13 at 6 p.m.

No registration necessary.

Olma carpet under the hammer on May 3, 2026

The Olma carpet will be auctioned off – secure the unique piece of your dreams! The actor Matthias Flückiger, known for his wit and temperament, will conduct the auction.

Visit to the “Garden of Paradise” on May 20, 2026

A public guided tour of the “Festival of Nature” in the Botanical Garden of St. Gallen. The St.Gallen Botanical Garden displays 8,000 labeled plants from all over the world and attaches great importance to bringing its plant treasures closer to the interested public in a lively and entertaining way. At the “Festival of Nature”, there are many exciting things to learn about the garden as well as nature and biodiversity topics.

Art is good for you on May 31

Interactive tour and workshop for young people and adults.
Be inspired by the exhibition and build your own paradise with materials from the OFFCUT collection. Let your imagination run wild and discover how good art is for you. OFFCUT collects and sells used and residual materials, turning them into materials again.

Finissage of the exhibition Stranger Than Paradise on June 7