Viva Frida Kahlo! – Immersive Experience

Frida Kahlo has landed in Zurich with a fabulous immersive experience at the new MAAG Light Hall. This world premiere brings the powerful work of the Mexican artist to Switzerland, presented using high-performance video projection and light acoustic effects.

Since I was a teenager I was fascinated by Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and her surrealistic art. For me, Frida is an immense source of inspiration with her self-portraits and as well a symbol of resilience. Her life was not easy, being in constant pain after a terrible bus accident when she was 18 and giving her heart to a man which whom she had a very turbulent relationship didn’t make it any easier.

But despite all the pain, grief and sadness she experienced, she didn’t stop to create and paint, the opposite: She made suffering an art. Very often Frida even painted in bed and her work became a kind of medicine. The total of her paintings is 144 and 55 of them are self-portraits.

During her lifetime she was in the shadow of her artist husband Diego Riviera, although Frida claimed in her diary that she never could have endured her painful existence without his love, he was in a certain sense the second tragic accident in her life. He had numerous affairs, even one with Frida’s sister and the Stern magazine describes their marriage as an “unholy symbiosis between an elephant and a dove”. Besides art, they also shared a passion for communism and an unhealthy lifestyle with alcohol and drug abuse.

It wasn’t until one year before her death, that Frida had her first and only solo exhibition. However, by the time it happened she was already so sick that she had to be carried in her bed to the opening. Frida became only after her death the most well known Latin American painter and an icon of the feminist movement. The Hollywood movie about Frida’s life starring Salma Hayek in the main role in 2002 gave Frida’s popularity another boost.

I couldn’t have been happier when I heard that The MAAG Light Hall would be showing Frida Kahlo’s work as an immersive experience. This venue is Switzerland’s first permanent museum to show only immersive exhibitions. Frida is the first artist they show and I was not disappointed at all. The opening was a blast with Mariachi music, drinks but mostly: A journey into the exotic world of my beloved Frida full of colours and strong symbolism. I can truly recommend this exhibition and I am curious myself which other outstanding artists will be shown at the MAAG Light Hall in the future.

The exhibition is on from now till 2.1.2022 at MAAG Light Hall in Zurich.
Find out more here and book your tickets: vivafridakahlo.ch