Andreas Züst was a collector of stories and perspectives, of social and natural phenomena. As a “Memory-maker” he recorded everything that interested him and all that made up his life. This remarkable quality is reflected, also, in his collection of artwork, which, in its unique way, so exactly captured the spirit and attitude of life in the eighties and nineties. The approximately 1,500 works reflect not only Andreas Züst’s wide-ranging interests, but also his sense of the unadorned, the absurd, and the curious. Considering this collection together with the portraits that make up his “Bekannte Bekannte” (Known Acquaintances) series reveals a trove rich with encounters, exchanges, and stories. There are photographs of nearly every artist whose work features in the collection—portraits of Fischli/Weiss, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Markus Raetz, Dieter Roth, André Thomkins, Sigmar Polke, Annelies Štrba, Nan Goldin and Boris Mikhailov, as well as images of Zürich’s native sons, like Anton Bruhin, and of lesser-known artists and outsiders. One exception to this was Friedrich Kuhn, who had already passed away (and had long been absent from the art market) at the time Züst began his collection.

In 2009, five years after the collection had been placed on permanent loan to the Aargauer Kunsthaus, the museum mounted a significant retrospective, entitled ”Memorizer—Der Sammler Andreas Züst” (Memorizer—The Collector Andreas Züst). The exhibition also included Andreas Züst’s own photographic documents, which present the different worlds and personalities that served as context for the work on display. And all of this was complemented by interviews—conducted by the Canadian-Swiss filmmaker Peter Mettler—with the collector’s friends and confidants themselves: Anton Bruhin, Bice Curiger, Olivia Etter, Patrick Frey, Urban Gwerder, Ize Hollinger, Walter Keller, Jan Voss, Peter Weber and Peter Mettler. The DVD is one part of a comprehensive catalog, which, in 2009, was recognized in the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition.

A revised edition of the exhibition, titled "Métérologies mentales" (Mental meteorology) was displayed at the "Centre Culturel Suisse" (Swiss Cultural Center) in Paris in 2012. Details can be found at www.ccsparis.com.

Collection Andreas Züst: