Films
‘Printed on Stone’ is a series of short films about Swiss poster art from 1901 to 1980. Each episode focuses on an original poster from the ViPArt private collection.
Episode 1
Cardinaux: The Spark
In 1907, Emil Cardinaux painted the Zermatt Matterhorn poster — and in doing so invented a visual language that remains relevant to this day. Four colours. Four words. One mountain.
Episode 2
A longing for the mountains
Martin Peikert painted his own daughter against the Engadin sky — Marie-Thérèse, aged 22, from Valais, who loved that hat. In 1937, Walter Herdeg designed the poster for St. Moritz — and, at the same time, a sun logo that remains the town’s trademark to this day.
Episode 3
Baumberger: A chameleon
When the PKZ poster was put up in Zurich in 1923, passers-by asked the client whether they could use the photograph for their own purposes. It is not a photograph. It is a lithographic poster by Otto Baumberger.
Episode 4
The Magic of Things
A toothbrush. A glass. A tube of toothpaste. That’s all. No people, no lifestyle, no story. With this, Niklaus Stoecklin and the Basel School invented a visual language that Apple reinvented eighty years later.
Episode 5
Leupin: The witty seducer
A parrot. On a bicycle. With a straw. Herbert Leupin knew that humour in a poster is the highest form of creative intelligence. Because if you’re even a millimetre off the mark — the joke falls flat.
Episode 6
A paradise with a railway station
In 1922, the yellow PostBus was still a major attraction. Switzerland was opening up to the world — and every step of the way was commemorated with a poster. From the mountain railway to the aeroplane: the posters accompanied every step of the journey and turned the PostBus into an adventure.
Episode 7
The Woman Who Smiles
Seduction. Identification. Sometimes provocation. Women in Swiss poster art — from the ‘femme du monde’ at the lido to the woman who, in 1958, looks straight into the camera and says nothing. These posters are a mirror. This is cultural history.
Why I collect:
An interview with Beatrice Müller
What drives someone to collect thousands of posters — and never stop? Beatrice Müller, collector and founder of ViPArt, talks about her collection and why the Swiss poster is a forgotten part of our cultural heritage that deserves to be rediscovered.
Production:
Artifiche AG Zürich
Producer:
Beatrice Müller
Concept, screenplay and direction:
Florian Leupin
Camera, editing and post-production:
Adrian Aeschbacher
Voice:
Oriana Schrage
Sound:
Tonstudios Z
with the kind support of
Museum
of Design
Zurich