Historic Home of Furk’art Goes Up for Sale

TheHotel Furkablick, which from 1983 to 1999 was the site of Furk’art—an ongoing project established by Swiss gallerist Marc Hostettler in which some sixty artists participated at his invitation—is for sale. Located high in the Furka pass of the Swiss Alps, the nineteenth-century hotel hosted works variously ephemeral and lasting by artists including Marina Abramović and Ulay, Daniel Buren, James Lee Byars, Gretchen Faust, Günther Förg, Richard Long, Olivier Mosset, Steven Parrino, Roman Signer, and Lawrence Wiener. Among the works that can still be seen in and around the hotel are striped shutters by Buren, which adorn the building’s face, and a selection of “Truisms” by Jenny Holzer, which have been incised into rocks a short distance away. Two of the works, next to the pass road, are considered local landmarks: These are a granite-block fire pit by Max Bill and a brick chimney by Per Kirkeby. The hotel’s restaurant and steel-clad entrance were designed by Rem Koolhaas in the 1990s and remain OMA’s only work in Switzerland.

Hostettler in 2004 sold the property and some of its outbuildings to Ricola lozenge heir Alfred Richterich, whose foundation thereafter paid for the site’s upkeep and conservation work. Since then, the Furkablick Institute has conserved the artworks, maintained the buildings and made a limited number of additional interventions, the most recent of which is Guillaume Bijl’sÀ vendre, unveiled this summer. This sign, reading, “For Sale,” references the artist’s 1986 work reading “Zu Vermieten” (To Let) on another building on the pass, acquired in the late 1990s by Belgian sculptor Panamarenko. Since 2022, the ETH architecture school has been operating a residency program in one of Hotel Furkablick’s outbuildings; its future is uncertain.

“Intensive talks are currently under way for the sale of the Furkablick Hotel and other buildings and land owned by Alfred Richterich,” said the Richterich Foundation in a statement. “Alfred Richterich, who would like to hand the ensemble over on account of his age, and the foundation are keen to find a viable solution for the Furka that treats this historically and culturally unique place with the necessary sensitivity and with an eye to the future.”