There it is again, the typical combination of luxury and down-toearthness that makes Gstaad so unique, endearing and ultimately also internationally popular: interdisciplinary artist Anthony Bannwart converts cowbells into champagne bowls.

He has no shortage of ideas, the artist Anthony Bannwart. “Art is suffering, the craft is also sighing ... but champagne is still being drunk in chalets and hotels, or precisely because of the pandemic,” he recalls the situation during the pandemic last winter. Soon, the idea of a bronze champagne cooler made from a cowbell was born.

For Bannwart, the cooler is a tribute to the dwindling art of bell casting as well as an expression of admiration for his favourite place, Gstaad, with its rich cultural heritage. And so last December he set about realising his idea: in weeks of precision work, he produced the first two prototypes from the largest possible cowbells. A bell foundry in his birthplace of La Chaux-de-Fonds assists him.

He does not exhibit the finished works of art in a gallery, no, the coolers find their place in two boutiques in the Gstaad Promenade. The object seems to please, because the waiting list of orders should keep Bannwart busy for the next few months.

BASED ON AVS/SONJA WOLF