30 plaster reliefs, each varying in size between 10 x 4 cm and 150 x 220 cm, are mounted on the walls of the two stairwells of the Roche building 250 in Kaiseraugst and plastered seamlessly to the wall. The basis for the intervention was a mural painted by Niklaus Stoecklin in 1930 for an early Roche building. Stoecklin expresses the connection between the decorative power of plants and their function in the world of pharmacy in a very interesting way in the mural.

The staircase at building 250 forms a room that is subdivided into different sections in a complex way. Although it can be walked through without any hindrance, the view of the space is constantly intersected, both from the perspective of the user and while looking in through the glass panes. This makes it well-suited to a game of surprise. It's never visible in its entirety. The plant parts appear and disappear. Flowers, leaves and roots surface, alternating with more abstract forms that are difficult to identify due to their being enlarged or cut off.

“With his artwork Of eyebright, lungwort and flossflower, Markus Schwander facilitates unexpected experiences in two ways. On the one hand in the encounter with the artwork itself; on the other, with a space that he productively reinterprets. The stairwells of the laboratory building are made perceivable in a new way and evoke a different kind of experience. Different (day)light situations generate continuously new perceptual possibilities.”
Cornelia Dietschi

9 Cornelia Dietschi: Of eyebright, lungwort and flossflower – An artistic intervention in the two staircases of Roche’s Bau 250 in Kaiseraugst by Markus Schwander.