Mamco

Switzerland’s largest and youngest museum of contemporary art, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, to give Mamco its full name, has not only set a benchmark in showing current work, it has catalysed a whole new cultural district in the now gallery-peppered Quartier des Bains. Founded in 1994 and occupying 4,000m2 of a former 1950s factory building, Mamco dedicates most of its beautifully repurposed space to temporary shows, while sharing highlights from a collection of more than 3,000 works. Signature permanent pieces include Gianni Motti’s 1999 ‘Big Crunch Clock’, a solar-powered digital timer counting down the five billion years until the sun explodes (solar-powered, for extra Italian irony), and Maurizio Nannucci’s joyous neon work ‘Art, Text, Light, Sign’, conceived for the gallery’s 1994 opening and shown on the staircase’s four mezzanines. Another showpiece is a fascinating, faithful recreation of the Paris apartment of minimalist and conceptual art collector Ghislain Mollet-Viéville which displays pieces by Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and Bernd and Hilla Becher. Great guided tours are available, including kid-friendly versions, and on the first Sundays and Wednesdays of the month, they’re free.