Alexandre de Betak brings his light show to a traditional Swiss barn

After debuting his new atelier in London with a dazzling light installation during Frieze 2025, Alexandre de Betak continues his exploration of light and perception in the Bernese Oberland, setting modular light panels and mirrors inside a traditional Swiss barn during Gstaad Art Week.

By Ali Morris

published 18 February 2026

in Features

light panels installed in a Swiss barn by Alexandre de Betak — (Image credit: Jack Orton)

When we last saw artistic director Alexandre de Betak, he was at his new London mews atelier, where he was in the midst of preparations for his debut show during Frieze. Having stepped away from the catwalk and the production house he spent his career building, the immersive installation – made up of glowing modular light panels – marked the beginning of a new chapter for personal artistic projects.

light panels installed inside a Swiss barn by Alexandre de Betak

Four months on, de Betak finds himself working with the same light panels, but in rather different surroundings in the Bernese Oberland. Here, the futuristic modules are set up alongside carefully placed mirrors inside a traditional Swiss barn, their clinical geometry at odds with rough timber walls and a structure built for storage and labour rather than contemplation. The contrast is deliberate: a rural, pre-industrial space used as a vessel for something more unexpected and contemplative.

The installation, unveiled during Maze Art Gstaad 2026, is titled Chashitsu Hikari Schürli – a nod to the conceptual bridge de Betak draws between Swiss and Japanese vernacular architecture. The chashitsu is the highly codified space of the Japanese tea ceremony; the schürli, a modest Alpine farm shed. Though culturally distant, both share an economy of means and a respect for material honesty. De Betak says he isn’t attempting to recreate either form, but rather 'abstract their underlying principles'.

The barn itself is used across two levels, with mirrors placed to fracture and extend the architecture, creating moments where space feels doubled, skewed, or harder to read. The barn’s horizontal timber slats create a steady visual rhythm, their rough lines echoed by the ribbed glow of the light panels. Snowlight filters through gaps in the structure, flattening the palette to wood, white and silver; the effect is strangely calming, as if the landscape outside has seeped into the installation itself.

Here, de Betak treats light as a building material, using it to reflect, absorb and multiply. As visitors move through the structure, the work shifts around them, destabilising depth and orientation. That impulse feels consistent with what de Betak described in London last autumn, when he spoke about leaving behind the 'objective' of the fashion event. 'When you remove the objective of the event,' he said then, 'you’re a bit more free – but you’re also lost.' In Gstaad, that sense of being unmoored becomes part of the work itself: the installation is less about producing a singular image than about heightening awareness of the space you’re standing in, and how you’re moving through it.

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Ali Morris is a UK-based editor, writer and creative consultant specialising in design, interiors and architecture. In her 16 years as a design writer, Ali has travelled the world, crafting articles about creative projects, products, places and people for titles such as Dezeen, Wallpaper* and Kinfolk.