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Born in Fribourg, Switzerland. 1931-40 Attends schools in Basel. 1941-44 Apprenticeship as decorator. From 1947 Member of the circle of Basel anarchist Heiner Koechlin. 1952 October: Moves to France with his wife Eva Aeppli. 1954 Opens his first exhibition at the Galerie Arnaud in Paris. Meets Niki de Saint Phalle and Yves Klein. 1958 Exhibition at Galerie Iris Clert of My Stars - Concert for Seven Paintings; Exhibition at the same gallery together with Yves Klein of the installation Vitesse pure et stabilité monochrome. 1959 Evening at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in London, a happening with racing cyclists and drawing machines. 1960 Hommage à New York, action with a self-destructing machine sculpture in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Co-founder of the group Les Nouveaux Réalistes. 1970 Construction begins in Milly-la-Forêt on Le Cyclop, a giant walk-in sculpture created in collaboration with Bernhard Luginbühl, Larry Rivers, Niki de Saint Phalle, Daniel Spoerri and others. 1977 At the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, creation of Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce, an installation by Jean Tinguely, Bernhard Luginbühl and Niki de Saint Phalle, inside which Daniel Spoerri sets up a 'Musée sentimental'. 1987 Creation of a huge, walk-in work called Grosses Méta Maxi-Maxi Utopia in a factory building of Von Roll AG in Klus, Switzerland. 1988 Dedication of the fountain at Château-Chinon - commissioned by the President of France, François Mitterand - created in collaboration with Niki de Saint Phalle. 1990 With the support of Pro Helvetia, the Arts Council of Switzerland, Tinguely exhibition at the Tretjakov Gallery in Moscow. 1991 Creation of La Cascade, a large hanging sculpture, in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. In Vienna: the last exhibition personally arranged by Tinguely. Jean Tinguely died at the Inselspital, Bern.

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