Book launch
Michel Ritter. Air Power / Peace Power

The Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg is pleased to present the new publication Michel Ritter. Air Power / Peace Power, which is dedicated to the artistic work of Michel Ritter (1949-2007). As the founding director of the Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg who had established himself as an important figure of contemporary exhibition-making, Ritter shaped the institution until 2002. The publication follows the eponymous exhibition on Ritter’s oeuvre which was presented in 2021 at the Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg and is accompanied by an essay written by Nicolas Brulhart, the former Artistic Director of the Kunsthalle. In his text, Brulhart pays tribute to this remarkable artist who chose to set aside his own practice in order to devote himself as a curator to the service of other artists.

From the 1970s to the 2000s, Ritter developed between Switzerland, Paris and New York a body of work of remarkable coherence, which was influenced notably by a critical sensitivity towards Western worldviews (shaped by formative journeys), as well as by conceptual practices and pictorial media strategies of 1970s art.

The publication gives an overview of Ritter’s collages on paper, films, and site-specific interventions and gathers archival materials, bearing witness to the fleeting, sensitive and critical poetics of an artist who placed the idea of energy at the heart of his practice.

On the occasion of the book launch, Nicolas Brulhart will give insights into Ritter’s work and artistic life. The publication is available in our online book shop and will be offered at a reduced price during the event.

Related book launch events:

January 30, 2026, 6pm
Centre d’édition contemporaine, Genève

Presentation of the publication during an event organized as part of the Archivorum×M program, in presence of Nicolas Brulhart.

March 6, 2026, 5:30pm
Arcades of Plateforme 10, Lausanne

Presentation of the publication by Stéphane Fretz (art&fiction) and Nicolas Brulhart, followed by an aperitif.