Damien Hirst
MENTAL ESCAPOLOGY

St. Moritz
February - March 2021

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Mental Escapology is an exhibition of over 40 works by Damien Hirst across five locations in St. Moritz. Organised with the assistance of the city of St. Moritz, the exhibition is presented in multiple venues including two historical buildings: the neo-classical Forum Paracelsus in St. Moritz Bad and the Protestant Church in the centre of St. Moritz.

Highlights of the exhibition include three large-scale outdoor sculptures. Hirst’s 12-foot-high sculpture The Monk (2014) is exhibited in the centre of the frozen Lake St. Moritz and Two Figures with a Drum (2013) has been installed on the south-western edge of the lake. Temple (2008), a 21-foot painted bronze sculpture depicting an anatomical model, is exhibited at Waldhaus Am See. Proteus (2012), also from Hirst’s Treasures series, depicting the shapeshifting sea god from Greek mythology, is located outside the Protestant Church.

The installation of The Monk represents the first time an artwork has been exhibited on the lake itself. Additionally, Mental Escapology is Hirst’s first public exhibition in Switzerland.

The exhibition also features works from some of Hirst’s most well-known series, including Natural History, Spot Paintings, Butterfly Colour Paintings and Mental Escapology, after which the exhibition is named. The exhibition, spread across indoor and outdoor sites, engages with both the region’s spectacular landscape and the city’s most important civic spaces in which to show art, creating a dialogue between nature, the manmade, the contemporary and the historic.

The exhibition has been curated by Jason Beard and produced by Oscar Humphries and Marco Voena. We are grateful to the city of St. Moritz for its assistance in staging this exhibition.