Exhibition Series: Home - On the Move
In 2026/2027, the Trinational Museum Network will present the exhibition series At Home - On the Move. Thirty museums from Germany, France, and Switzerland will present exhibitions that explore the theme in various ways, thereby sparking a cross-border reflection on the subject.
The exhibition series is coordinated by the Dreiländermuseum in Lörrach. On this page, you’ll find new interviews with the exhibitions’ curators every two weeks.
Andreas Seim, curator at the German Music Automaton Museum (Bruchsal), on the exhibition Home - on the move. On the International Trail of Mechanical Music.
What is the exhibition about?
The German Music Automaton Museum at the castle explores the international history of mechanical music and presents company histories that can be considered the “startups” of the 19th century. The companies began developing mechanical music locally, quickly formed networks, and soon established themselves as “global players.” From small towns in the Black Forest, dense production and trade networks emerged that reached, for example, the British Empire, the Russian Empire, and the United States—until the complex supply, production, and market structures collapsed in the wake of World War I and the Great Depression.
How does the exhibition explore the theme “Home—On the Move”?
The special exhibition, with its 15 stations, also explores a historical dimension of economic migration. Many skilled workers from Germany applied their expertise in mechanical music beyond their homeland and sought a livelihood abroad. This draws parallels to contemporary economic and social issues in Europe—from labor mobility to transnational value chains.
Is there a work or aspect of the exhibition that, in your opinion, particularly vividly illustrates the theme “Home - on the move”?
Actually, no, because every company’s history and the biographies of its owners are very individual. Taken on its own, each one illustrates the exhibition’s theme. Information panels placed in front of the respective objects can convey this. Due to the exhibition’s integration into the trinational “Museum Network,” these panels are written in German and French.
Dominik Baiker, Director of the Schopfheim City Museum (Schopfheim), on the exhibition “Hebel’s Swiss Journey.” A reenactment.
What is the exhibition about?
In late summer 1805, the poet and theologian Johann Peter Hebel accompanied two young nobles, Carl Peter and Christian Ernst August von Mentzingen, on a four-week educational journey through Switzerland. His travel diary takes readers from the banks of the Rhine to Swiss lakes, thundering waterfalls, and the once-mighty Grindelwald Glacier in the Bernese Oberland. The exhibition recreates this journey with 28 historical travel prints and picturesque views that offer a glimpse into the visual world around 1800. It shows how the landscape became an experience in itself and how Switzerland became a destination of longing for early educational and nature tourism.
How does the exhibition explore the theme “Home—On the Move”?
The Austrian writer Michael Köhlmeier once described Hebel’s art as follows: “He told the world about his homeland, and he told his homeland about the world.”
Johann Peter Hebel is still regarded by many as a regional poet. Our exhibition shows him from a different perspective: as a traveler who explored Switzerland in 1805 and observed landscapes, customs, and people with a keen eye. His travel journal records these encounters in a matter-of-fact, concise, and at times laconic manner. Hebel is interested not only in the familiar but also in the unfamiliar. The Swiss mountain landscape, with its peaks, glaciers, and gorges, fascinates him as a natural experience. His journey makes it clear: Hebel’s attachment to his homeland and his curiosity about the world are inseparably linked.
Is there a work or aspect of the exhibition that, in your opinion, particularly vividly illustrates the theme “Home - on the move”?
We quote Hebel in a label accompanying a print titled “Sunday Amusement in the Bernese Oberland.” In his travel diary, he writes about his encounters with the rural population in the cantons of Obwalden and Bern: “However, nothing is more difficult than judging the character of a people without being unfair, when one merely passes them by on the highway.” A remarkably timeless piece of advice—as applicable on the road as it is at home.
To the exhibition overview
Jan Merk, Director of the Dreiländermuseum, on the exhibition series:
