Kunsthaus Zug has been “mobile” since 2002. As a travelling museum, the special container has made several stops in Zug, the rest of Switzerland and abroad, bringing art from the museum to the people. Exhibitions of contemporary art are shown and mediated in the smallest of spaces. The “Kunsthaus Zug mobil” seeks site-specific contact with the public and, as a container, is at the same time a metaphor for today’s globalisation. In 2008, the project was awarded the Swiss prize for the education of Fine Arts and was presented by the German Goethe-Institut in a European exhibition tour about young German architecture abroad.
As part of a study, the former group of architects called rheinflügel from Düsseldorf took an intensive look at the Kunsthaus Zug. The group, which emerged from the Düsseldorf Art Academy, was also familiar with the conversion of the Kunsthalle there at the time. In a broad conversation with rheinflügel, questions of contemporary museum architecture as well as museum practice were discussed and also the relationship between the public, space and art was examined. How could the guiding concept of the Kunsthaus Zug, “interconnected museum in the flow”, have an effect on space?
In response, Kunsthaus Zug mobil was created. Commissioned by the Stiftung der Freunde Kunsthaus Zug, rheinflügel designed a mobile exhibition space. The large container (twelve metre long), specially made in Hamburg and the Czech Republic, fulfils the technical requirements to accommodate works from the collection; it has its own air-conditioning and security system. Interior design and lighting create attractive exhibition conditions. The smooth, specially coated exterior surface allows for artistic treatment. The mobile "white cube", an innovative solution, is suitable for artistic, socio-cultural or art-scientific activities. As a container, it can be transported worldwide by road, rail or ship.