Markus Ganz is a Swiss journalist and author born in 1961 in Zürich. He was notably the managing editor of the Swiss magazine Music Scene from 1983 to 1987. Since then, he has worked as a freelance journalist with a focus on music, regularly contributing to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) from 1989 to 2019. His work extends to writing on literature, architecture, and he has covered various topics through extensive reports, such as tea culture in China, bullfighting in Spain, and child labor in Bangladesh.

Ganz is also known for his collaboration with the artist Betha Sarasin, with whom he created the multimedia book "Die Reise zu den Seen" in 1988. This book was a unique blend of a science fiction narrative, art book, and music project, released in German, English, and Chinese. Following this, he published "Zurück zu den Seen" in 2018 as a homage to Sarasin, who passed away in 2016. This work continues the themes of their earlier collaboration, mixing story, art, and music in a culturally rich tapestry.

Beyond journalism, Markus Ganz has been involved in music, creating compositions for multimedia projects, including short films and poetry, often in collaboration with Betha Sarasin. He has also contributed to several books and worked as a lecturer at institutions like the Zürich University of the Arts and various adult education centers in Switzerland.

His contributions to both journalism and the arts have been recognized for their depth and the innovative blend of different media forms, showcasing a creative and interdisciplinary approach to storytelling and cultural commentary.

 

His work with Betha Sarasin

Markus Ganz's collaboration with Betha Sarasin is one of the highlights of his career, particularly noted for their joint project, "Die Reise zu den Seen" (The Trip to the Lakes). Here are some key points about their work together:

• "Die Reise zu den Seen" (1988): This was a multimedia project that combined elements of a science fiction novel, an art book, and a music project. It was published in three languages: German, English, and Chinese. This book was not only a narrative but also included visual art by Sarasin, with musical compositions by Ganz to accompany the story. The narrative involves a journey through various cultural and natural landscapes, reflecting on human interaction with nature and culture.
• Artistic Collaboration: Their work together was characterized by a fusion of different art forms. Sarasin's visual art complemented Ganz's writing and music, creating a holistic experience for the audience. This interdisciplinary approach was pioneering, especially in how it used art to explore complex themes like identity, nature, and existentialism.
• Legacy and Continuation: After Betha Sarasin's death in 2016, Markus Ganz published "Zurück zu den Seen" (Back to the Lakes) in 2018 as a homage to her. This book revisits the themes and settings of their earlier work, continuing the dialogue between art, literature, and music. It serves as both a tribute to Sarasin and a continuation of their shared vision, adapting it to new contexts and technologies.
• Impact: Their collaboration has been influential in the fields of art, literature, and music in Switzerland and beyond, often cited for its innovative approach to storytelling and its exploration of multimedia art. It stands as a testament to how different artistic disciplines can converge to enrich narrative and cultural commentary. Their work together exemplifies a unique blend of creativity, where the sum of their collaboration was much greater than its parts, leaving a lasting impact on those who engage with their art. (summary by grok)

ON THE SPIRALPROJEKT BY BETHA SARASIN: EARLY GENERATIVE ART AND THE BLOCKCHAIN

Betha Sarasin (1930–2016) was a Swiss artist known for her strikingly diverse oeuvre. In addition to informal and concrete paintings and figurative and concrete drawings, among others, it also includes, from 1978, computer-aided works. SPIRALPROJEKT is a generative multimedia project that dates back to 1983. Sarasin, together with musician Markus Ganz (*1961) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials in Freiburg, Germany, developed a software in Fortran to create three-dimensional spirals. So far, she had mainly made cuts on the cube; now she wanted to achieve an orderly spatial movement for the cube, to make it fly, so to speak, and capture infinity. In the early 1980s, however, the spiral data could not be used in real time to generate music. In 2024, the multimedia project that Betha Sarasin and Markus Ganz thought up in 1983 was finally realized.

 

Media comments on the book "Back to the Lakes" by Markus Ganz, with artwork by Betha Sarasin

 

 

Neue Zürcher Zeitung – 28. September 2018 – Feuilleton

 

When a pear tree falls in love with a water lily, it has to bend down

 

In the graphically elaborately designed book "Back to the Lakes" Markus Ganz tells the story of the journey of mythical creatures. The story is illustrated by idiosyncratic images of the late artist Betha Sarasin.

 

 

Jürg Zbinden

 

Markus Ganz is known above all as a music journalist who expertly and critically reports on pop cultural events and reviews albums. The fact that he also pursues completely different interests is in principle no surprise. But the story "Back to the Lakes", published by Friedrich-Reinhardt-Verlag in Basel, falls out of all frames and open drawers. Trilingual, German, Chinese and English, the text is supplemented by Ganz with pictures of the artist Betha Sarasin, who died in 2016 at the age of 86.

 

"Back to the Lakes" has a predecessor, the multimedia book "The Journey to the Lakes" from 1988, also illustrated by Betha Sarasin. Now, after thirty years, Markus Ganz has published a sequel. The two volumes are the result of a joint trip to China, hence the translation into Chinese.

 

Science fiction mythical creatures

 

The travelers to the lakes, are they mythical creatures from a science fiction fairy tale? There is the small pear tree Lantau, which was a must pear giant before a downsizing. The miniaturization seemed necessary to him for amorous reasons, because he discovered the love for the water lily Liliette. At the beginning of her journey Lantau puts the delicate blossom in his branches. A hawthorn called Habakus turns out to be a hermaphrodite who has decided to live his feminine side. When she, Habakus, talks to her thorny neighbours, we are talking about a "rustling chat". Other travellers have even stranger names: Balubalubi, Chichimoya and Koffitea - is the latter also a hermaphrodite, half coffee, half tea?

 

The destination of the magical beings are the magical lakes. The way there leads via La Serenissima, the old water city of Venice, where readers and protagonists get to know the new gods, including Dr. Qinghöngbäng, a digital idol (among others) with Facebook features: "People were less and less able to distinguish between reality and virtuality. For they were in bondage to Dr. Quinhöngbäng, constantly looking into the mirror book of ten thousand faces. That's why they had countless friends, but no one to meet, no one to meet. They were satisfied with themselves."

 

Journey to the West

 

Finally, three figures from "The Journey to the West", the groundbreaking Chinese novel from the 16th century, appear: the monkey king Sun Wukong, the insatiable boar Bajie and the wise sand monk. A "biocomputer lake" performs an actual water ballet, a false bird named Swi-Switch leaves his life in the fragrant flowers of the water rose, which he has fallen in love with just like the hawthorn.

 

Wondrous figures populate the fairytale-like travel narrative, in which past and future flow into each other. Equally peculiar are Betha Sarasin's illustrations, a mixture of concrete art and drawings that remind one of the surrealists Hans Bellmer and Leonor Fini. The conclusion does not solve any puzzles: "Until they understood that they had only dreamed the first journey and would only undertake it in the future. Or was the new journey perhaps just a dream? Is "Back to the Lakes" at the end a parable of life? The answer is left to the readers.

 

 

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Tages-Anzeiger - 26 July 2018 - Page: 28 - Culture & Society

 

 

Three plants on a salvation trip

 

 

The Zurich music journalist Markus Ganz has published a story.

 

 

Literature In "Back to the Lakes" a hero descends into the underworld, like Dante in "Commedia" - but in the end there is no ascent into the sky, but only a "spiralling fog" that gives no answers.

 

 

Markus Ganz, born in 1961, is a music journalist in Zurich. The music also plays a role in his new narrative, a continuation of the "Journey to the Lakes" published thirty years ago. For example, a fairytale bird called Swi-switch sings the "Song of the Young" by E-Neutöner Karlheinz Stockhausen. Already here it becomes clear that Ganz' story is not just a kind of modernized grim fairy tale. Although plants, trees and animals can also speak for him, they do so from a complex, contemporary human psyche, so to speak.

 

 

Humans are in bondage to "digital idols

 

Lantau, Liliette and Habakus - these are: a small pear tree, a water lily, a hedge bush - set off on a journey to the "magic lakes", whereby these lakes stand for a place of longing to "gain knowledge" and "redeem" people. Even if the plants Lantau, Liliette and Habakus are anthropomorphic, they are at the same time a counter-world to human reality.

 

 

At the beginning, the seemingly harmless story develops into a disastrous one. On the way to the magical lakes we encounter the three sensitive plant creatures of a human world that is in bondage to "digital idols" and that is also acclaimed as progress. A negative utopia.

 

Ganz's story is increasingly getting on your bones. This can become almost oppressive in combination with the many images that accompany the text. "Forever damned" is a large picture signed, on which thick black lines are hopelessly mixed up.

 

 

Homage to the artist Betha Sarasin

 

It comes from the Swiss artist Betha Sarasin, who died in 2016. Around a hundred of her pictures - paintings, drawings, computer-assisted works - illustrate the text (which also sees itself as a tribute to the artist). In their often abstract, multi-layered style of painting, they expel Ganz's narrative from the last seemingly harmless fairy-tale tone, pointing to the profound meaning of the text.

 

 

At the end of the book, at the "lake of fragrant flowers", all answers are lost in the fog. After all, there remains a little bit of salvation. Finally, at the lake, a "primordial sound full of dissonances" sounds, which conjures up a smile on even sad people's faces. And the sound wafts into the distance. It wafts towards the fog of missing answers. Loses itself only slowly. Loses itself nevertheless.

 

Christoph Merki