2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year for design lovers, with an array of global design exhibitions set to be staged at some of the world's most celebrated institutions. Our exhibition calendar includes retrospectives of design legends, from Verner Panton to Lella and Massimo Vignelli, and in-depth looks at the work of giants such as Isamu Noguchi and Alessandro Mendini.

We also can’t wait to delve deeper into the archives of some of our favourite grandes dames of design, with shows dedicated to Hella Jongerius, Es Devlin and Sabine Marcelis.

Below are the institutional exhibitions we are most looking forward to – mark your diaries, and don’t miss our 2026 design fairs calendar too.

2026 design exhibitions to discover

‘Fungi: Anarchist Designers’ at Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

This groundbreaking design exhibition curated by anthropologist Anna Tsing and designer Feifei Zhou presents fungi as 'radical designers in a world beyond human control'. On view at Rotterdam's Het Nieuwe Instituut, the display explores how mushrooms and moulds can cause decomposition, death and destruction, but also explores their potential to work together with human and non-human life. The curator commissioned seven new installations for the exhibition, created by designers working closely with scientists, and also includes artworks from artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Annicka Yi. The thought-provoking exhibition aims to challenge our perception of design while answering the question, what can we learn from non-human life?

Until 8 August 2026, Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25, 3015 CB Rotterdam

Alessandro Mendini at Estorick Collection, London

The first solo exhibition of Alessandro Mendini’s work in the UK, this show features a curation of over 50 pieces, ranging from furniture and drawings to paintings, rugs and objects. The playful poetry of Mendini's work is explored through the artistic references and inspirations that helped shape his career. Among the connections woven by the exhibition are those with Futurist artist Fortunato Depero, to whom the designer dedicated two works in fabric, and Wassily Kandinsky’s abstract paintings, referenced in Mendini's Kandissi sofa.

16 January – 10 May 2026, Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1 2AN

‘Noguchi’s New York’ at The Noguchi Museum

Isamu Noguchi first arrived in New York City in 1922 and, despite his globe-spanning career in art and design, the city remained a base for him throughout his life – and its material, cultural, social and political landscapes a profound influence on his ideas and work. In turn, Noguchi left his own mark on the city – with public art proposals and communal spaces designed for engagement and play (many of which faced opposition from figures such as NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses). Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, this exhibition examines Noguchi’s enduring efforts to give back to the city that inspired him. It also celebrates the museum itself as one of his most lasting contributions to New York, highlighting the dialogue between art and surroundings that defined Noguchi’s vision and legacy.

4 February – 5 July 2026, The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York

‘Art of Noise’ at Cooper Hewitt, New York

This major exhibition examines how design has shaped the way we experience music over the last century. From concert posters and album covers to the design of radios, phonographs, digital players and sound systems, ‘Art of Noise’ brings together over 300 objects from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to reveal how designers have influenced our relationship with sound. The exhibition also features dynamic audio environments by Stockholm-based Teenage Engineering and multidisciplinary artist Devon Turnbull, inviting visitors to engage with sound and design in entirely new ways – from custom listening rooms to innovative seating environments – showing how visual and industrial practices both reflect and shape cultural, technological and social shifts in music.

13 February – 19 July 2026, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York

‘Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things’ at Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein

The first retrospective of Hella Jongerius’ work, this exhibition follows the Vitra Design Museum's acquisition of her archives and charts the Dutch designer's creative trajectory across several disciplines, including textiles, ceramics, furniture, lighting, and sculpture. Alongside the archives will be an overview of Jongeriuslab, the designer's studio, and its unique approach to creativity, shaped by a mix of 'layering ideas, drawing connections, emphasising materiality, exposing process, and researching deeply, with a dedication to craft, colour, and cosmic thinking'.

14 March – 6 September 2026, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany

‘Lella and Massimo Vignelli’ at Triennale Milano

A major retrospective dedicated to the work of Lella and Massimo Vignelli, this exhibition is a testament to the designers’ crucial impact on popular culture through product design and visual communications. The Vignellis left post-war Milan and settled in New York to establish their studio in 1965, and their ‘intellectual and human journey’ is narrated through a curated selection of objects, furniture, interiors, drawings, models, sketches, photographs, manuals, trademarks, books, covers, and magazines. The exhibition is designed by Jasper Morrison, and created with the support of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), which preserves more than 750,000 objects from the studio's history.

25 March – 6 September 2026, Triennale Milano, Viale Alemagna 6, Milan

‘Verner Panton: Form, Colour, Space’ at Vitra Schaudepot, Weil am Rhein

It’s no exaggeration to say that Danish architect and designer Verner Panton (1926-1998) transformed furniture, interiors, fabrics, lamps and buildings with his bold forms, vibrant colours and visionary ideas. In 2026, he would have celebrated his 100th birthday; to mark the occasion, the Vitra Design Museum’s Schaudepot exhibition – one of the most significant collections of Panton’s designs – is presenting his work chronologically and thematically. The exhibition highlights iconic pieces such as the ‘Panton’ chair and the 1970 ‘Visiona II’ installation; it also reconstructs the designer’s 1970 ‘Fantasy Landscape’, a walk-in environment that transformed the way people experienced space, colour and form. The exhibition places Panton’s work in its historical context, examining his innovations in materials and production, the postwar social shifts that shaped his designs, and the influence of the Space Age.

23 May 2026 – 9 May 2027, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany

Es Devlin at the Design Museum, London

This is the first major UK survey of Es Devlin’s 30-year career, showcasing her work across sculpture, performance and light installations. Operating at the intersection of art, performance, architecture and technology, Devlin is known for elevating stage design to an art form. Her work treats audiences as ‘temporary societies’ – rather than serving as a backdrop, it shapes how people gather, move and feel within a space, whether that’s through kinetic stage sculptures for artists like Beyoncé, U2 and The Weeknd, or monumental installations for events such as the Olympic ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime show. Developed in close collaboration with Devlin, this retrospective features rare maquettes, sketches, annotated texts and process materials alongside new sculptures and installations created specifically for the exhibition, highlighting her transformative influence on contemporary art and design while revealing the ideas and processes behind her most ambitious work.

18 September 2026 – 11 April 2027, Design Museum, London

‘Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley’ at Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas

In the 15 years since establishing their design studio, twin brothers Nikolai and Simon Haas have crafted a world filled with magical creatures and larger-than-life biomorphic ideas that also happen to be brilliant design objects. This exhibition at the Blanton Museum of Art explores the Austin natives' magical output; discover sculptural objects made in a variety of techniques and materials, including porcelain, bronze, wool, glass beads, fur, and more.

26 September 2026 – 17 January 2027, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, 200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

‘Sabine Marcelis – Light and Color’ at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Sabine Marcelis’ first museum exhibition is dedicated to the Dutch designer’s impeccable colour and light work, exploring the past few years' output alongside newly commissioned light pieces. On view at Zürich's Museum für Gestaltung, the show presents an insight into Marcelis' practice, with samples and material studies offering a look behind the scenes of her work, combined with a carefully conceived spatial experience that honours her expressive designs.

30 October 2026 – 14 March 2027, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Pfingstweidstrasse 96

‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ at the Design Museum, London

This landmark exhibition highlights contemporary Black designers who are reshaping the British and global design landscape. Ambitious and wide-ranging, it encompasses furniture, architecture, fashion and installation. The featured designers, including the likes of Mac Collins, Samuel Ross, Bianca Saunders and Giles Tettey Nartey, draw on identity, culture and community to create work that reflects the complexities of modern Black experience. The exhibition situates this work within a broader historical context, referencing movements such as the Black Aesthetic of the 1960s and the New Black Aesthetic of the 1980s, while interpreting these legacies for today’s landscape. ‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ reveals the transformative ways Black designers are shaping design, as well as inviting audiences to rethink entrenched narratives about who defines it.

6 November 2026 – 8 August 2027, Design Museum, London

Following the pandemic and its restrictions, the world finally seemed to open up for travel again in 2023, resulting in a hospitality renaissance. With a certain vibrancy driving the design of many new openings over the past 12 months, Wallpaper* travel editor Sofia de la Cruz has selected these 10 colourful hotels – from mountain retreats to city boltholes – to inspire your 2024 holiday plans.

10 colourful hotels to inspire your 2024 escapes

01. Otro Oaxaca, a hotel embracing its Mexican region’s traditional textures

Grupo Habita’s property in Oaxaca proves that this southern Mexican city is a bona fide hot-ticket destination. Set on the edge of the pedestrianised plaza of the 16th-century Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the high red terracotta walls of the 16-room Otro Oaxaca give little hint of what lies beyond – which is an intriguing sequence of interlocking pavilions, shadowed corridors, narrow Jenga-like staircases, and courtyards and terraces that local architects RootStudio have clad with brick, limestone, raw concrete and reclaimed wood to reflect the textured mood of traditional Oaxacan design.

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02. W Budapest, an eclectic mix of neo-Renaissance architecture and Hungarian heritage

In all its splendour, the Drechsler Palace, a 140-year-old neo-Renaissance building located in the city centre on Andrassy Avenue, has an imaginative new life – a W hotel with 151 rooms and suites, plus a perfect-to-people-watch restaurant, a chummy lounge, a deep underground spa, and even a speakeasy.

Right across the street from the State Opera House (where Angelina Jolie was recently spotted filming the Maria Callas biopic), this palace, originally designed by architects Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos, had previously been a fabulous café spilling out to the street and also the HQ for the Hungarian Institute of Ballet. After an extensive renovation, interior design studios Bowler James Brindley and Bánáti + Hartvig have now morphed the property into a delightful fit for the 21st-century traveller.

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03. Hotel Drei Berge, a dream-like retreat in the Swiss mountains

Hotel Drei Berge is nestled in the cliffside of the Bernese Oberland Alps in Switzerland, some 1,638 meters above sea level. The idyllic property is courtesy of Ramdane Touhami, the multi-dexterous creative force best known for his work at Officine Universelle Buly and his Parisian art direction agency Architecte Recherche Industrie, who discovered the picturesque village of Mürren in 2022 and then acquired the historic hotel, formerly known as Hotel Bellevue, shortly after.

Utilitarian yet filled with finesse, Hotel Drei Berge exemplifies the thoughtful ethos that Touhami is known for – elevated and desirable yet remaining true to its intrinsic identity, which in this case is the traditional mountain community.

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04. Infinito Suite at Palazzo Avino, sea views with elegant minimalism

The Infinito Suite at Palazzo Avino is an unmissable penthouse designed by Neapolitan architect Giuliano Andrea Dell'Uva. Perched on the picturesque hillside that makes up the town of Ravello in Italy’s Amalfi coast, luxury hotel Palazzo Avino first put down its cliffside roots in the 12th century, when it was constructed for an aristocratic local family. 

Over the centuries, it has changed several hands and undergone a host of renovations and expansions, but it functioned mainly as a private home until 1997, when it was transformed into a stunning boutique hotel by the Avino family, led by sisters Mariella, Attilia and Maria Vittoria. It now boasts a Michelin-star restaurant, a spa, a rooftop lobster and martini bar, a boutique (The Pink Closet, designed by Cristina Celestino), a heated pool overlooking the coast, and a penthouse suite.

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05. Aldo Rossi's Hotel Il Palazzo in Japan, where architectural extravagance reigns supreme

In Fukuoka, situated in Japan’s far west, Aldo Rossi’s Hotel Il Palazzo still stands today — and it is just as otherworldly as when it was first built in 1989. 34 years later, the building finds itself under its third ownership since its founding, with a redesign launched by the hotel’s original interior design studio, Uchida Design Inc, who centred their approach on ‘softness and natural materials'. Established by the legendary late Japanese designer Shigeru Uchida, the studio is now led by Kiyoshi Hasebe — who worked closely alongside the founder and stands as studio director since Uchida's death in 2016.

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06. Martin Brudnizki’s Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York, striking spaces set within an original mansion

The freshly minted Fifth Avenue hotel and its 153 rooms cleaves close to the real estate adage about ‘location, location, location’. Set on the corner of 28th Street and, well, Fifth Avenue, it’s within walking distance to Madison Square Park, the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, and a clutch of tent-pole museums and galleries such as the Gagosian, Lisson Gallery and Fotografiska. 

The hotel occupies two buildings – a handsomely restored 19th-century brick and limestone manse, and a new 24-storey glass tower. All of which, given the small number of guest rooms, translates into an unusually spacious interior with the most striking spaces set within the original mansion, every corner reworked and reimagined over a seven-year renovation project.

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07. Il Capri Hotel, an intimate and elegant neo-Gothic Venetian-style pink palazzo

Intimacy and elegance are the order of the day at one of Capri’s newest boltholes. Il Capri Hotel, housed in a neo-Gothic Venetian-style palazzo, stays faithful to the traditional codes of the property, first converted into a hotel in 1899.

Graziella Buontempo and Arnaud Lacombe of the Parisian Savoir Vivre Group respected the original building in contemporary detailing. The nightclub in the basement joins other amenities including a large roof terrace, swimming pool and outdoor terrace overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. ‘It’s timeless Capri meets Italian vacation home,’ the duo note.

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08. Locke am Platz, a design-led city escape in Zürich

Locke, known for its trendsetting lifestyle aparthotels, recently debuted in Switzerland with its 15th property, Locke am Platz. Nestled in Zürich's Enge neighbourhood, the launch marks the brand's entrance into the Swiss market.

In collaboration with London-based Sella Concept, led by Tatjana von Stein, Locke am Platz embraces Zürich's cultural identity and local flair through a distinctive and sophisticated design. Positioned amidst greenery and botanical gardens, the aparthotel is spread across six floors, comprises 80 units, and offers an idyllic city break.

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09. Broadwick Soho, an independent luxury hotel in London

It is fair to label London's Soho as the beating heart of the British capital. With its 90 colourful streets, longstanding hospitality, pulsing nightlife, and eccentric street style, this vibrant area in the West End surely ensures a good time, every time. Broadwick Soho, an opulent contemporary 57-room retreat, including nine suites and a penthouse, is nestled in the neighbourhood's buzzy centre.

Brought to life by interior designer Martin Brudnizki, there's no other way to describe the hotel but as a sensory feast. The establishment combines Jazz Age opulence, Italian influences from travels around the country, a dash of English eccentricity, and a sprinkle of disco fabulousness.

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10. Rosemary, a textural haven and contemporary Moroccan escape

Located next to Palais Bahia, the oldest neighbourhood in the Medina, Rosemary is a five-room riad that was five years in the making after its previous owner, a Frenchwoman called Rose-Marie, convinced Leenaert and her husband Ayoub to buy her three-storey manse – which had been renovated by the Belgian architect Quentin Wilbaux who’d been appointed by Unesco to map the Medina in the 1990s.

Following the traditional silhouette of a riad – sheltered rooms and loggias spilling out onto a central patio anchored by the arching branches of a 40-year-old Jacaranda – Rosemary is a thoroughly contemporary reimagining of a Moroccan fantasy, Leenaert tapping over 40 local artisans to rework the interiors with bespoke furnishings and finishes such as zellij (or zellige) tiles and tadelakt, a natural lime-based plaster common to the area.

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Locke, known for its trendsetting lifestyle aparthotels, debuts in Switzerland with its 15th property, Locke am Platz. Nestled in Zürich's Enge neighbourhood, the launch marks the brand's entrance into the Swiss market, and follows previous openings such as Ember Locke and Buckle Street Studios, both in London; WunderLocke in Munich; and Locke at East Side Gallery in Berlin.

Locke am Platz, designed by Sella Concept, opens in the heart of Zürich

In collaboration with London-based Sella Concept, led by Tatjana von Stein, Locke am Platz embraces Zürich's cultural identity and local flair through a distinctive and sophisticated design. Positioned amidst greenery and botanical gardens, the aparthotel is spread across six floors, comprises 80 units, and offers an idyllic city break.

'We designed Locke am Platz with a layered approach, juxtaposing modernism and the grandiose Zürich lake life, inspired both by the building, the city and local icons' work such as [that of] Le Corbusier,' shares Tatjana von Stein, founder and creative director of Sella Concept.

Apartments at Locke am Platz echo a boudoir-style ambience, featuring vibrant colours, modern patterns and bespoke decorative curtains. Each studio, in Locke fashion, includes a living area and a fully fitted kitchen. Additionally, the property offers 40 hotel-style rooms for short-stay guests.

The thoughtfully designed social spaces with floor-to-ceiling windows create a bright, inviting atmosphere, while the use of stainless steel and rich upholstery strikes a balance between hard and soft materials. Connecting the restaurant and the lounge is a central bar, facilitating a seamless day-to-night transition.

Situated on a raised platform, the lounge features bespoke furniture by Sella Concept, incorporating terracotta, green, and yellow velvet finishes to craft an intimate and vibrant space. This versatility extends to the lounge and restaurant, where an evening DJ booth transforms into a high table during the day.

Choupette, the on-site restaurant under the guidance of head chef Jaco Redelinghuys, introduces a creative fusion of a French brasserie with modern Nordic influences. Curated by Dino Schön, the wine list complements the culinary offerings. For private functions, a separate dining area adorned with classic-style mural wallpaper and a Villa Borsani-inspired rug awaits, illuminated by Gio Ponti ‘Bilia’ lamps.

'With a slight theatrical nod, we aspired to create an environment which incentivises Locke's guests to move from morning to evening with connectivity between spaces, while creating moments of intimacy and surprise, as we see Locke's core essence to be around the connection between people and culture,' adds von Stein.

lockeliving.com

sella-concept.com

In her show, ‘A simple prophecy’ at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse, Berlinde De Bruyckere weaves history, religion and decay into monumental lead and wax sculptures and mixed-media relief works. 

As with many artists when asked about their work, De Bruyckere responds by delving into her longstanding developments, unpacking narratives from myriad experiences, and reflecting on a changing world. ‘In the 30 years since my career started, my perception of the world we live in, of our society, has changed. I think we have failed somehow. So many promises and resolutions were made, so very few of those became a reality.’ In ‘A simple prophecy’, De Bruyckere is seeking to transform the divine into something more human, bridging a gap between the angelic figures in her Arcangelo series and reflecting on beauty and decay in It almost seemed a lily.

In the era of isolation that characterised the Covid-19 pandemic, De Bruyckere meditated on the pain of dying alone that was felt across the globe, and began seeing saviours from that pain in people. ‘The nurses and the soldiers and everybody working in the hospitals, they became for me like angels.’

For the Arcangelo works shown in Zurich, she has created full-scale human forms (De Bruyckere developed a technique for the materials, combining lead and bronze to create works that can stand exposed to the elements without being dramatically altered) and places them high on plinths. ‘The distance we feel when we first encounter these sculptures is really important; they are high up on their pedestals, it’s like they are asking for respect.’ The plinths echo the overwhelming scale of the tomb of Vasco de Gama. De Bruyckere visited the artefact on a trip to Lisbon, and admired how it protected the Portuguese explorer’s small body. 

On their shoulders, the figures hold swathes of wax-cast animal hides that obscure all but their legs, thin and fragile in comparison to the heavy load they carry on their backs. ‘The title “A simple prophecy” embodies the connection between the profane and the divine. In this specific selection of works, there is always a religious starting point, but then they move to a more universal, human level,’ says De Bruyckere. ‘I really want to make [the Arcangelos] more human. I think this aspiration is reflected in the title: a prophecy is never simple, simplicity is the territory of humans. The divine is always more complex and chaotic.’ 

De Bruyckere frames the Arcangelo figures as simultaneously vulnerable and powerful, using height to inform status, and composition to expose us to their humanity. The final figure of the show, Liggende - Arcangelo I, 2022-2023, (2023), lies flat, described by De Bruyckere as an injured bird waiting for help, and further narrows the gap between human and religious figures. 

This notion returns in her florally inspired works, informed by a trip to a nunnery in Mechelen, Belgium. De Bruyckere describes coming across miniature recreations of the Garden of Eden in the nunnery. Small figures were made from parts of dried flowers, wooden twigs and foliage wrapped in silver, fruit pits painted and decorated, and small amulets placed amongst them by the nuns. The boxes were contained by covers, which allowed them to be closed away, a feature used in her It almost seemed a lily series. ‘I photographed hundreds of these tiny flowers; they became very special to me and I really searched for a way to translate this feeling of abundance and secrecy.’

The mixed-media series is inspired by impressions from the undersides of petals and flowers cut open to expose their reproductive systems. They comprise paper petals, hung in reliefs, and include a box filled with organic matter, echoing those seen in Mechelen. De Bruyckere presents these floral depictions ‘not when it is bright and open and wild’, but dried and decaying. Alongside the craft put into the boxes, she offers an honest view of her subject matter. ‘It's showing us we all have to die, that we're getting older and more fragile, and have all this knowledge that we have built up during our lives.’

De Bruyckere’s ‘A simple prophecy’, in symbolism, execution and inspiration, proposes a narrowing of the gap between religious symbols and humanity. 

Berlinde De Bruyckere: ‘A simple prophecy’ is showing at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse, from 26 January – 13 May 2023

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Titled ‘Old Shep’, photographer Torbjørn Rødland’s new show references the melancholic Elvis Presley song of the same name, and circles around the theme of time. Exhibited at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zurich, Rødland’s fourth solo show with the gallery focuses, as he tells us, on ‘ageing bodies and failing forms’. ‘They’re seen weakened, bent, broken, fallen – while coexisting with new forms and budding life.’ 

It was the purchase of a box of retired bowling pins back in 2019 that sparked ‘Old Shep’s conception. A couple of years passed before Rødland stumbled across the right scene to create Nine Pins and a Chair, one which now forms a centrepiece of sorts for the series. The obscure yet constructed scene of decaying familiar objects and sliced tree stumps conveys a sense of the macabre in the parched landscape. 

Exploring the rest of the series, symbols and tropes are subtly warped, as is typical in Rødland’s work. Born in Norway but long settled in Los Angeles, Rødland’s perspective combines nordic noir with American pop culture. 

References to classical art history and the divine are touched upon too through vanitas symbolism, a mother and child for example, as her breasts drip milk onto her baby’s cherub-like cheek.

Rødland infuses these works with an awareness of our contemporary landscape of relentless image consumption; to fully digest the images viewers must linger, no matter how much a sense of disconcertion might build. Together this creates a stretch across the theme of time, crossing the beginning and end of life.

Bathed in Rødland’s signature backlighting, the show offers a sense of unease that’s tangible in texture: the wrinkled skin, dog fur, petals and broken egg shells. 

Torbjørn Rødland, ‘Old Shep’, until 11 March 2023, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich. presenhuber.com

The newly extended Kunsthaus Zürich has opened its doors to the public. The extension, designed by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, makes the art museum the largest in Switzerland.

The bold geometric form of the new building, situated on the northern side of Zurich’s Heimplatz, places an emphasis on urban space, with the creation of new outdoor public areas. Situated opposite the museum’s existing building – originally designed by Karl Moser in 1910 and extended by various architects over the decades – the new addition opens two new spaces to the community: an urban square located south of the building and, to the north, the new Garden of Art, which celebrates nature. These two open areas are linked by the extension’s light-filled entrance hall, with visitors passing freely through it. Meanwhile, an underground passageway connects the new and existing buildings.

The extension, which has been 12 years in the planning and building, stays faithful to David Chipperfield’s emphasis on purity of form, with a stark grid-like pattern and graphic interiors. Useability is maximised with the division of the space into four key areas, including a display of art dating from the 1960s onwards that unites different genres, including sculpture, painting, photography and new media art in an exploration of the artistic possibilities of the period. Also accommodated is the Emil Bührle Collection, temporary exhibitions, and the Classical Modernism display.

The central entrance hall of the new Kunsthaus Zürich extension becomes a hub for community events, as well as a showcase for art. On the ground floor, a café bar – now home to the largest surviving work by Max Ernst – a museum shop and an events hall serve as an entertaining hub, while the two upper floors, flooded with natural light, house the exhibition spaces.  

‘The project for the extension of Kunsthaus Zürich brings together the fundamental concerns of museum design with the responsibilities created by both the urban context and the relationship with the existing museum,’ says David Chipperfield. ‘From the outset, we have sought to invest the museum with the physical qualities that enhance the experience of the museum visitor while considering the civic nature of the building and the institution. We hope that the quality of the architecture, its spatial, formal and material resolution will guarantee that the extension, like Karl Moser’s original building, becomes an integral part of the physical, social and cultural infrastructure of the city of Zurich.’

INFORMATION

davidchipperfield.com

kunsthaus.ch

Hotelier Campbell Gray’s latest project makes the most of its tony perch on the edge of Lake Zurich. Framed by the Alps, the former Hotel Alexander has been given a major facelift by local studio Marazzi + Paul, its staid 1958 façade now refreshed with handsome stone and fringed with leafy terraces.

Inside, BradyWilliams – the designers behind many of London’s Corbin & King restaurants – have, for their first hotel project, swathed the 44 studios and penthouses with light timber flooring, soft linen, and French doors that open directly onto lake views.

In the kitchen, meanwhile, executive chef Alexander Kroll turns out grilled meats and fish, with current hits including turmeric cream scenting tiles of tuna tataki, and lobster, simply grilled and served with a puff of tarragon mayonnaise.

When you’re not traipsing through the Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen or discretely saying hello to your money in the basement vault of your local bank, we suggest booking the hotel’s XO 270 Cabin motorboat for a whip around the lake.

ADDRESS

Seestrasse 182
Thalwil
Lake Zurich

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Le Corbusier’s very last realised project, originally inaugurated in 1967, the Pavilion Le Corbusier in Zurich, is experiencing a popular summer after its reopening in May. Between October 2017 and February 2019 architects Silvio Schmed and Arthur Rüegg worked on a meticulous renovation of the iconic landmark status structure to return it to its former colourful, art-filled glory.

The 600 sq m steel and glass structure, which unfolds across four storeys, was designed by the great master at the request of interior designer, gallery owner, and patron Heidi Weber, who visualisedit as the ideal exhibition venue and destination for art. Le Corbusier duly obliged, creating a building that was ‘a synthesis of the arts’ – bringing together art, architecture and life. For architecture and design lovers, the pavilion also reflects the well known modernist's wider principles on prefabrication, circulation, his fondness of roof gardens, and presents an opportunity to see some of his furniture design.

When the lease for the land the pavilion was built on ran out in 2014, the structure was passed to the local authorities to be operated by the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. The team has since made it their goal to return the pavilion to its original purpose – displaying art – and going forwards will be presenting a series of exhibitions that explore Le Corbusier from different angles. To meet increased public interest, opening hours extend to seven months a year (May to November) and six days a week.

The current exhibition, running until November, titled ‘Mon Univers’, explores Le Corbusier’s passion for collecting. As well as an architect, architectural theorist and urban planner, Le Corbusier was also an active painter, craftsman, sculptor, and furniture designer, who amassed many objects such as conch shells, ceramics from the Balkans, flotsam, and industrial glass that he would arrange in assemblages for inspiration.

Original pieces from the architect's private collection, spanning historical photographs, casts, paintings, ceramics, bronzes and furniture, are displayed alongside loans from the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris and the Antikenmuseum Basel, and 16mm film clips of Le Corbusier, building a visual and thematic journey through the pavilion; while his legendary 1931 installation ‘Les arts dits primitifs dans la maison d’aujourd’hui’ has been recreated in the two-story atrium on the ground floor.

INFORMATION
museum-gestaltung.ch

pavillon-le-corbusier.ch

‘Mon univers’, Pavilion Le Corbusier, 11 May – 17 November 2019

ADDRESS

Pavillon Le Corbusier
Höschgasse 8
8008 Zurich
Switzerland

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‘He was a workaholic, but he was also a womaniser,’ Dr Angela Thomas Schmid recalls – not without affection – speaking of her late husband, the Swiss artist, architect, and designer Max Bill. The art historian is the president of Bill’s estate, and the curator of a small but insightful new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, exploring his ongoing exchanges with the masters of the Bauhaus.

Trained as a silversmith and an insatiable autodidact, Bill was only 16 when he had his first break abroad, thanks to Sophie Taeuber-Arp who spotted his talent at the design school in Zurich and presented his functional works in Paris for the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925. And it was the Parisian gallerist and patron Jeanne Bucher – whom Bill met later – who would push him to find his own style.

His participation in the exhibition at the Grand Palais and a trip with Taeuber-Arp to Paris instilled a great sense of confidence in Bill and inspired him to study modernist architecture. The following year, hearing that a new Bauhaus school was opening in Dessau, Bill applied and was accepted, aged 18, enrolling with the first cohort of students to attend in 1926.

He was taught by Josef Albers, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer, and László Moholy-Nagy (the latter is concurrently subject of an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s London gallery). Though he would continue to engage with the Bauhaus way of thinking, Bill later rejected an opportunity to join the teaching staff at the Bauhaus school in Chicago. Instead he founded, designed and built his own school in 1953, the Hoschschule fur Gestaltung, in Ulm.

Although these leading men of the Bauhaus undoubtedly had a major impact on Bill’s practice and thinking, his path was shaped just as much by the strong female students he met at the school. In the two years he would spend there, he ‘fell in love four times’, Schmid notes. But his fascination with women wasn’t only sexual interest. Impressed by the ideas of group of left wing, emancipated women with bobbed haircuts smoking cigarettes in the weaving workshops, it was their uninhibited dancing, reportedly, that encouraged Bill to unearth his own erotic energy.

Bill’s friendships with Katt Both and Hilde Rantzsch in particular are celebrated in a 1927 portrait he drew of the pair, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. His love of feminine forms is playfully commemorated in a photograph of Bill dressed up with breasts for a theatre performance at Dessau. Seen in parallel to the curving, swirling, circuitous forms of two resplendent metal sculptures, one of which is presented in public for the first time, his appreciation seems formal and deeper rooted.

As Schmid shooed away two men standing in front of a vitrine to make room to explain examples of Bill’s work better, it was also clear that the artist’s legacy in the future will continue to be carefully guided by female forces.

INFORMATION

‘Max bill bauhaus constellations’, 9 June – 14 September, Hauser & Wirth. hauserwirth.com

ADDRESS

Hauser & Wirth
Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zurich

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Husband and wife architects, Florian Baier and Nina Baier-Bischofberger, are both highly skilled parametric designers. But, unlike other parametricists, their mathematics tends to mirror nature’s geometries, which means that Baier Bischofberger Architects aim to make buildings that are not alien spaceships within the landscape, but rather form a liveable part of it. Their latest completed project is a family house near their hometown of Zurich.

The property is in Männedorf, on the edge of Lake Zurich in Switzerland. The clients are a couple with two young children, and the husband comes from a local family who own numerous plots in the area because they were once farmers there. The clients’ chosen plot used to be an orchard and sheep meadow. It sits on a little plateau with a gentle slope down towards the lake, offering panoramic views across the lake towards the Alps.

‘What is quite unusual, in the ever-densifying suburbs here, is that this family is not really interested in building on their land,’ says Nina. ‘They could have fully developed the plot, built apartments, and would never have had to work again,’ adds Florian. ‘But instead they decided to build something nice for themselves and keep that quality of wide-open space.’

The heart of both plot and house is a tree. For the garden, the architects enlisted the help of landscape architect Enzo Enea, who planted a large plane tree in the centre, around which the courtyard, and then the house itself, are wrapped. ‘Over time, the house and the tree will grow to become one,’ says Nina. The rest of the garden has been kept mostly as meadow, with some formal planting nearer to the house.

There were a number of considerations that helped define the asymmetric C-shape of the structure. One involved looking at the landscape and the internal zoning defined by paths across the property; another was the exposed position of the house because of the size of the grassy plot around it. ‘A courtyard house allows you to communicate around that courtyard and give you privacy as well,’ says Nina. The courtyard is open at the back, facing towards the lake and framing the view. The house also has an undulating roof, which reflects the surrounding landscape and ‘brings a more exciting shape into the interior’.

The house spans 350 sq m and contains three bedrooms with an additional one-bedroom guest apartment. There is no air-conditioning; passive shading, good insulation and natural ventilation keep the house cool in hot weather. There’s also a spiral staircase, almost baroque in its grandeur, and a double-height living space with a picture window. On the top floor, a large transparent net plays the role of a traditional balustrade, helping to maintain visual and spatial connections. A more secluded master bedroom looks across the lake to the mountains.

The main timber structure was prefabricated off-site and took about three weeks to erect. ‘The geometry is quite complicated,’ says Florian. ‘The carpenter used CNC milling machines to prepare everything, and an on-site 3D model was used to help assemble the pieces.’ The zigzag forms of the exposed laminated ash beams in the ceiling are a strong feature throughout. Their shape responds to the house’s complex geometry and allowed for triangulation of the roof structure so the architects could always work with flat planes.

The pattern of the spruce façade, treated to give the weathered silver sheen of older wood, is reminiscent of traditional barn cladding. Up close, the detailing is far from rustic – it’s immaculate Swiss precision, like the pockets on a perfectly tailored pinstriped suit. ‘It’s quite subtle and you don’t consciously notice it, but every angle is different, which means that, despite the fact the roof is undulating up and down, the cladding always meets at the roof line,’ says Florian. ‘It’s not just stuck on; it really reacts to the shape of the building.’

Another nod to the complex geometry of the house is the tessellated hexagonal European oak parquet flooring on the top level. ‘We saw this pattern in the shoe department of Selfridges in London years ago and loved it,’ says Nina. ‘And because this house is full of constantly changing angles, this is the perfect shape to accommodate that.’ Nina also came up with an interior palette of blue, green, aubergine, yellow and warm grey, and she chose many of the fabrics and furnishings. ‘It was important that these colours and shapes all fitted together because of the visual interconnectedness of the interior,’ she says.

The house is far more complex and high-tech than it looks. It also has a rich mix of materials, colours and textures flowing through its curvy spaces, but both aspects are executed in such a subtle way as to never feel overbearing. It is a fine example of parametrics being put to the service of the user, rather than just being there for visual effect. ‘People who have visited tell us that, although it is a big house, you never feel lost in it, which means we have achieved a good balance between intimacy and generosity of space,’ says Florian. ‘I think that’s quite a nice compliment.’ §

As originally featured in the December 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*237)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Baier Bischofberger Architects website

In Zurich, Gus Wüstemann Architects has designed a modest concrete housing block that champions natural light and outdoor living for its residents. In its shape and simplicity, the design references modernism, yet also draws from the local context of minimal Swiss architecture inspired by the landscape.

Located in Zurich's suburb of Albisrieden in the heart of a green belt and surrounded by gardens, the block consists of nine flats – four 60 sq m two-bedroom apartments and five 95 sq m three-bedroom apartments. The building brings a new shape and density to the neighbourhood in an architecturally interesting, yet modest way. And, while the apartments are small, they are generous in many ways.

The apartment's interiors are open to the outdoors with wide balconies sheltered by wooden persianas from Barcelona. While the exterior is solid in its nature, two courtyards are cut out of the solid block and the apartments are positioned like bridges, capturing the morning and evening sun.

Commissioned by the Swiss-based Baechi Foundation, co-owned by Isabel and Balz Baechi who have an interest in culture, the design brief was to create an opportunity for a high quality of life for residents, while keeping the architectural budget low. The teams both agreed that the main priorities for improved residential living were natural light, privacy and space.

The flats are let out at the lowest price for rental in the city, so the design had to create a simple shell for tenants with unique needs and personalities. Additional features were kept to a minimum, with the focus on elements such as the sliding windows and a built-in concrete bench that add idenity, yet are economic in design.

Although the scale of this project is modest there is an uplifting sense of space and light, testament to the architects’ careful consideration of how the balance of space could be shared and economised between the individual and the community – with communal space as an important asset to the inhabitants.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Gus Wüstemann Architects website

Located in a quiet suburb of Zurich, just one street away from Le Corbusier’s Heidi Weber Museum, Ballet Mécanique is a group of Swiss residences with a twist. The clue is in the name. Its architect, locally based Manuel Herz, designed the housing scheme with a facade that consists of louvres that can open up and transform into accessible balconies.

The residential building is located on the grounds of an existing villa, on a large site near Lake Zurich – the garden of which was integral to the design development. ‘One of the greatest qualities of the site is its garden, which is marked by a wild and primeval quality’, explains Herz. ‘Walking through it, we encounter surprises, wild plants, installations, objects that seem like the remains of forgotten cultures, trees with sculptural qualities and footpaths that disappear into nowhere.’ 

The structure’s distinctive moving elements, not only provide shading, privacy and an outdoors element; they also bring the outside in and shift the otherwise clean geometry of the structure into a dynamic, sculptural whole. The building is in its essence a simple cubic volume, but when the metallic louvres open, its character changes dramatically. So the house lives and breathes together with its inhabitants – opening up in the morning, when they wake up and have coffee on one of the colourful terraces, shutting hermetically at night during bedtime.

The louvres feature 20 different hues of reds and blues, which are visible only when open. This adds a touch of colour to this inspiring residential design – influenced also by the nearby Le Corbusier project and the great architect’s use of colour. The interiors spread across three floors include a variety of living and sleeping areas. Five apartment units make up this boutique housing development; they are let to tenants and any profit is channelled by the art collector owner into an art foundation established to support emerging artists. 

This connection to art was also a key source of inspiration for the architect. ‘The client is interested in kinetic art, such as Alexander Calder, and Jean Tinguely', explains Herz. ‘From the very first moment, I was inspired to bring this kinetic spirit into the design of the building. I also like the slightly "awkward" or almost clumsy movement of the Tinguely sculptures, which is also very important for my building. It should not be too slick and overly graceful. There should be this notion of a "ghost in the machine".' 

The shape and movement of the new building was also created in homage to a tree, which stood on the site and had to be removed in order for construction to begin. In constrast, the interiors feel relatively minimalist, featuring clean, straightforward details and a restrained material palette of metal and concrete – allowing the focus to remain firmly on the house’s expressive exterior.

Herz’s explorations into moving elements and kinetic art merge in this project

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of Manuel Herz Architects

To get to Roni Horn’s home and studio in upstate New York, you drive through farm villages, past horses grazing on meadows, and after a few turns, reach a gate leading to a rugged dirt road. Even on a balmy spring day, the road is covered in a layer of ice. It’s a long, winding ascent until you reach another turn, passing by two seal-brown buildings, before finally reaching a house overlooking a small lake, with floor-to-ceiling windows and deeply set eaves on each end. The sun pours through the building, bathing the space in a cool light on this slightly overcast day.

Horn and a friend purchased the 100-acre piece of land in 2005. ‘We got it so we would have real privacy,’ says Horn. This urge for isolation is no surprise from an artist who in 1982 chose to live solo in a lighthouse in Iceland for two months. Horn does, though, still maintain her 6,000 sq ft Manhattan studio, which houses her most precious personal possession: her collection of books. She grew up in and around New York City and hasn’t given up on it entirely.

Horn designed the country studio herself, primarily as a space to create drawings and photographic works (her large-scale sculptural works are produced by outside fabricators). And like her work, the studio is shaped by the environment in which it was created. Horn says that its mountainside location leads to violent winters, with heavy wind, deep snow, and impenetrable ice. ‘The structure takes an incredible amount of abuse,’ she says, something she had to consider in its design. ‘We get a lot of wind and snow, and these wide eaves really protect me and the building as well.’

A portrait of the American artist at her studio in Austerlitz, NY.

The airy ceilings and polished concrete floors emphasise the industrial feel of the space, though it mostly recedes into the environment. On one side, a shelving unit is lined with bright pigments from Germany, Iran, and even Iceland – strikingly beautiful, but also strikingly toxic, Horn tells me. ‘The pigments are all heavy metals. Beauty and toxicity are very simple and strange; there is a correlation that I haven’t figured out.’ (That tension between violence and serenity, or brutality and beauty, is a continuous theme in Horn’s work.) The studio also houses tools such as epicly sized straight-edges and rulers; a long drawing table facing the lakeside wall of windows, piled with books, paper, and pencils; and a sound system to listen to music (Horn mentions Kanye West, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Kurt Weill) and podcasts while working.

But most striking are a series of drawings hanging from the walls, still in the process of completion. It’s this suite of drawings that will be premiered at Horn’s show at Hauser & Wirth in Zurich this summer. Horn’s practice has fluctuated within the confines of ‘conceptualism’ or ‘minimalism’ – though the artist scoffs at the notion of being considered minimalist, or pigeonholed in any other way. However, material and its potency, and sometimes duplicity, have been central to her work. Whether working in aluminium, glass or photography, she’s explored media until she feels she has completed or exhausted them.

Drawing, however, offers the artist something different – an eternal and incremental journey. Horn has often compared drawing to breathing, a necessary function that keeps her practice moving and evolving between bigger and often riskier works. ‘It’s something I need to do to keep peace with myself, so that I can take the kind of risks I feel are necessary for me,’ says Horn. ‘The sculpture and the photo installations are very high-risk conceptually and also technically, so drawing in a way gives me the strength to extend myself out into the wilds [of my practice].’

Some of Horn’s works in progress in her studio.

Horn began working on her ‘pigment drawings’, made from powdered pigment, turpentine and varnish applied to paper, in the 1980s. Often on the small scale, early works were conceived as near identical pairs or trios of deeply pigmented abstract shapes; eventually colour receded to make way for cut and reassembled pieces of paper that blossom into architecture-like creations. In her most recent iteration, Horn has cut and arranged shards of paper, or ‘plates’, into large-scale works that, as a viewer, you’re lost inside. Look closely and you find fragments of language, numbers and symbols throughout the works. ‘It’s like a record, like a tracing of time. The drawings actually function on that level in addition to whatever graphic I start out with,’ explains Horn. ‘At some point, the process comes to an end and it’s a very intuitive ending. It’s very, very undramatic – more an athletic process, actually.’ The intensity of the process comes through in the shards of paper strewn around the base of a custom-made table on which she makes these drawings.

Alongside the new series of pigment drawings, Horn will premiere a wall-covering installation, entitled Wits’ End Sampler, born from a project she has been working on for years, asking friends and strangers to write out idioms or clichés. She collected over a thousand handwritten phrases, such as ‘When pigs fly’ or ‘Dumb as bricks’. The unedited contributions, complete with misspellings and malapropisms, will be screenprinted and applied to the walls of Hauser & Wirth’s second-floor galleries.

As we talk, Horn points out a charm of yellow finches near the window. We look for a moment as a quietness coats the room, and I recall a common experience I’ve had with her work – that of a pure moment of stillness, a stillness increasingly hard to find. This is what the artist has made an effort to create around her. ‘When I’ve had the choice [in my life] to make, it was always toward the solitary – being out in the wild with complete psychological freedom,’ says Horn. And looking out into the vast forest around her and the tranquil lake, it’s clear that she’s found that.

INFORMATION

‘Roni Horn: Wits’ End Sampler | Recent Drawings’ is on view from 10 June – 1 September. For more information, visit the Hauser & Wirth website

ADDRESS

Hauser & Wirth
Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zurich

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Andro Wekua’s Berlin studio is located on a curve of the River Spree near the Tiergarten park. This used to be quite a backwater, but escalating property prices and proximity to the river have turned it into prime real estate turf. The studio is in the remains of an old red brick building, a surviving wing of a larger industrial complex, surrounded by seven construction sites with billboards for future co-working spaces and relocation invitations. As he shows me up to his second-floor atelier above a small printing works (and opposite the studio of British artist Angela Bulloch), Wekua explains he doesn’t expect to be here much longer – ‘the owner is here almost every day with potential buyers’ – but he doesn’t seem unduly concerned.

Wekua is aged just 40, but has been well known in the art world since his twenties. MoMA and the Saatchi Gallery own several of his pieces, he has a solo show currently running in Moscow, and two coming up in Berlin and Zurich. He may not be fully blue chip quite yet, but he’s not far off.

Other big-name artists in Berlin, such as Tomás Saraceno, Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson, have factory-like studios with dozens of staff, but Wekua’s main atelier is almost empty, save for a number of modestly sized paintings in progress propped against the walls and a couple of tables covered in half-squeezed tubes of oil paint. The air is thick with the comforting aroma of turpentine. There are two chairs, which look like they came out of a skip, and a crate of bottled water. But no assistants scurrying around, no sign of hectic preparation for the shows – just the artist on his own.

Wekua explains, almost apologetically, that this isn’t his only studio, just the one he paints in at the moment, and that he has sent his two assistants home for the day. His sculptural works are all made at the Kunstbetrieb workshops in Basel and his films in another specialist studio in Zurich. He seems to be constantly on the move, dividing his time between these cities and, more recently, his country of birth, Georgia. ‘So far, I have had no problem living in different places,’ he says, ‘but I am starting to realise it would be good to decide so I am not scattered all over the world the whole time.’

Perhaps this state of permanent transit is why the studio space feels rather impersonal. The coloured oily tracks his fingers have smeared on the walls around each unfinished artwork are pretty much the only evidence he’s at work here. Yet the dozen or so paintings (portraits mostly) on display seem deeply personal, bursting with vibrant yellows, reds, pinks and blues.

‘I collect personal photos or ask friends for them – this is of someone I knew; this is me when I was young – but it doesn’t matter who they are, they may as well be strangers.’ Wekua then creates collages using the photos along with coloured paper, cut and torn. ‘An aspect of collage that I find fascinating,’ he says, ‘is that time is not necessarily linear. The various elements stem from different times and different places, but one can still depict them in an integrated way.’ When he is happy with the result, he sends the images off to a screen printer who scales them up and prints them on canvas or, in the case of the pictures here, sheet aluminium. The artist then works over the prints in oils, adding and subtracting and painting over until he is content. Wekua again emphasises his distance from the subjects, however intimate the paintings appear: ‘These are not portraits, they are figures,’ he explains. ‘There is a hardness about them, but it also interests me that there is a deeper narrative quality, too.’

Wekua’s powerful sculptures often feature life-like and life-sized androgynous adolescent figures. One piece for his Moscow show is of a teenage-looking figure with a huge black wolf nudging at her shoulder. Another, for Berlin, is of a figure standing in a pool, with water coming out of her various body parts like a fountain. His best known film, Never Sleep with a Strawberry in Your Mouth (2010), features yet more uncanny, android-like figures, this time played by humans, in a magical-realist domestic setting. Then there are the architectural models constructed partly from memory, of buildings from his former home town. What appears to connect them all is a strong sense of personal storytelling.

I ask him about the girl and the wolf, a theme that repeats itself in his sculptures. For many it is a motif dripping with narrative significance: Little Red Riding Hood, Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke or one of the Stark children from Game of Thrones. The figure is both innocent and warrior-like. But Wekua is adamant that storytelling is not his intent: ‘They stand for something, but not someone. It is a sense of universal condition that moves me, that I express in one form or another. But that is not a story. If viewers want to see stories in my work, that is of course fine, but it would be great if they could grasp that condition as well.’ He does not go on to elucidate what that condition might be.

Tellingly perhaps, Wekua’s own backstory is always brought up in interpretations of his work. It is as if his refusal to admit to a narrative drives others to force one on him. He was born in 1977 in Sukhumi, a war-torn region of Georgia which is now known as the disputed territory of Abkhazia. In 1989, his father, a political activist, was killed by Abkhaz nationalists during the Sukhumi riots. His family fled the city and, aged 17, he was sent on exchange to an anthroposophic school in Basel. ‘The 1990s were bad times in Georgia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was huge chaos. If there was a chance to get out and go somewhere else, it had to be taken. Nevertheless, it was still a good time for me, I had a lot of fun and was outside a lot. I did not want to leave.’ Switzerland was a culture shock: ‘It was depressing at the beginning and I was really alone.’

Wekua says he did not actively choose art as a profession: ‘I never knew what I wanted to be. But I drew a great deal as a child, so my father took me to a painter friend of his in Georgia who had a great studio, just like you imagine an old-fashioned atelier to be. I ended up going there twice a week. When he painted, I painted as well. It all sort of just came together.’

We talk about in-between spaces, like the location of his Berlin studio, that have allowed the creative scene to grow and evolve. They offer freedom to invent, to create something new. ‘It is the spaces in between that are important, but I can make my space anywhere because I carry everything I need with me.’ But what of the non-physical gaps? The spaces where emotions and memories and dreams exist? ‘Where I grew up in Georgia is very different now,’ he answers. ‘War, civil war and occupation have changed it massively, and much of what I knew in my childhood is not there anymore. Also, you imagine things differently to what they were, filling in the gaps with your imagination. My work is about closing these gaps.’

When he is working, the names for Wekua’s pieces come last of all. At the time of writing, two weeks before the first of his three shows, most of the new works are still nameless. By naming them he will be ascribing potential for meaning, which he seems reluctant to do: ‘Then there is no going back,’ he says. ‘Names are important, but then again some of my works don’t have a name even when they are done, even though I have tried to give them one.’

His work tackles, if obliquely, family loss, war, displacement, culture shock and loneliness. His professed disinterest in his protagonists, his dismissal of the autobiographical, and his ultimate detachment from his creations may be self-protective, but it seems more likely that he does not want his work defined by his own circumstances.

Once his works are completed, Wekua says he detaches himself from them completely. ‘As soon as my work is exhibited somewhere, that is where the relationship stops,’ he explains. ‘The work is not an ambassador for my ideas, it becomes autonomous. When I see my work in an exhibition, I am just as much an observer as you are. If the work is not able to take on a life of its own, then it doesn’t leave the studio.’

As originally featured in the May 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*230)

INFORMATION
‘Dolphin in the Fountain’ is on view until 21 May at Moscow’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art website. Further solo shows, both titled ‘Andro Wekua’, will be at Berlin’s Sprüth Magers, 27 April – 1 September, and at Kunsthalle Zürich, 9 June – 5 August

British artist Anj Smith unveils her latest body of work in the exhibition ‘If Not, Winter’ at Hauser & Wirth’s Zurich gallery. The process has not been easy; most of her recent paintings were created while recovering from a period of chronic anxiety. 

Talking of the persistent taboo around mental health in society, Smith says, ‘I’m not remotely embarrassed about talking about mental health, or recognising that this experience fed into the work to some degree. If acknowledging what happened to me normalises this common horror and reduces any residual taboo, then I’m glad.’

In her paintings, Smith navigates her personal experience of anxiety, using earthy tones of oil paint on linen. Phantasmagorical figures with their backs turned to the viewer meet landscapes littered with symbolic objects. There’s a sense of fragility, but also freedom. Their incomplete narratives are dreamlike, sensual and distant—an atmosphere that has become Smith’s trademark. 

‘And the fact that her muses were women was also deliberately misrepresented by male historians to fit a heteronormative agenda,’ she adds. ‘For me, her work became a springboard from which to think about the manipulated asymmetry of the cannon.’

This might be Smith’s most personal show yet, but her paintings aren’t only autobiographical: ‘Among other things, the micro personal experience of anxiety opens out to address a macro sense of communal unease.’

INFORMATION
‘If Not, Winter’ is on view until 19 May. For more information, visit the Hauser & Wirth website

ADDRESS

Hauser & Wirth
Limmatstrasse 270
Zurich 8005

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‘Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse,’ wrote Joan Didion, referring to the caprice of the Santa Ana fog, proclaiming a kind of pathetic fallacy for the flittish and fickle rhythm of life in the city. The weather phenomenon begins at sea and can quickly cover southern California’s coastal cities with a damp, cold, grey layer known locally as ‘June gloom’, as it often occurs in the late spring and early summer. It’s all quite at odds with the typically sun-kissed image of Los Angeles.

Larry Bell knows the fog that blankets the city well. The artist has worked in the beatnik neighbourhood of Venice Beach since the 1960s, and has often observed the clouds descend over the muscles and madness of the promenade.

The result of all this is a series of works dubbed ‘Venice Fog: Recent Investigations’, an interpretation of the way the fog rolls in over the lights of LA, shrouding the manmade in nature. It was originally produced as a commission for the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Germany, in 1992, and redesigned in 2018 in a new formation.

Emerging as part of a group of post-painterly West Coast minimalists in the 1960s, Bell, who was well known in the US and Europe by the age of 30, is now less famous than his peers Frank Stella and Donald Judd. Perhaps this is because his works are quieter, more ambient, both in terms of palette and gesture. At 78, this is his first exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in Europe, taking place at the gallery’s Zurich space.

The show-stealer is a series of very large glass cubes, with blocks of fuzzy colour suspended inside them like giant ice lollies, ranging from synthetic disco pink to opaque, dense cream – they look good enough to eat. The faint glow they give off is like a muffled bass line, or a curtained window – there’s a sense of a far-off energy. A series of smaller, plinth-standing laminated glass maquettes, each encasing shades of blue and foamy white, recall the original inspiration, the marine fog over Venice, more directly.

The works are a continuation of Bell’s fascination with luminosity, which he has made his muse and medium over the decades, working with an alchemical alacrity. ‘Although we tend to think of glass as a window, it is a solid liquid that has at once three distinctive qualities,’ Bell says. ‘It reflects light, it absorbs light, and it transmits light all at the same time.’

You hardly need to tell anyone in the Northern Hemisphere in January how light affects mood – and Bell’s structures suspend Venice’s atmosphere in a unique way: melancholy, spectral, but also spectacular.

Information

‘Venice Fog: Recent Investigations’ is on view until 3 March. For more information, visit the Hauser & Wirth website

Address

Hauser & Wirth
Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zurich

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Following the launch of of the much-talked about Lily’s Factory earlier this year, it seems the food scene in Zurich’s District 4 is really starting to kick off. The latest opening brings a boost of Middle Eastern warmth to the ground floor of a brutalist 1960s building on Badnerstrasse.

The concept of restaurateur Yves Niedermayr, furniture dealer Adil Pajaziti and designer James Dyer-Smith, who wanted to bring a bit of their travels to their hometown, Grand Café Lochergut features a relaxed, informal menu of small bites or sharing plates - from lamb kebabs served with halouomi and pistachios to sabich (pita stuffed with eggplant) - all served on vibrant middle eastern-inspired crockery and tableware.

In contrast, the interiors are sleek and understated; four Art Deco chandeliers hang above a brass-topped bar, which takes centre stage, while elsewhere, stained oak tables with brass-milled edges are paired with grey suede armchairs or black leather banquettes.

In true grand café style, the restaurant is open from 7:30am until midnight. Although we suggest popping by  on a Saturday at 11am for the ‘funky brunch’,  where classics such as french toast or pain au chocolate are available along with more exotic offerings such as shakshuka Marocaine, a mouthwatering dish of eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce.

ADDRESS

Badenerstrasse 230 

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When Berlin-based artist Christian Jankowski - who, along with co-curator Francesca Gavin - was tasked with curating Manifesta 11, the travelling European biennial that takes place in Zurich through 18 September, he selected the title 'What People Do for Money' and a theme called 'Some Joint Ventures', pairing local citizens — 'hosts' — in various professions of the Swiss financial capital with participating artists.

'Specific professions that are chosen by different artists add to mapping and reaching into the city, almost like arms from an octopus,' said Jankowski. 'Each arm of the octopus is another host-artist relation that goes into another society of Zurich that goes into another professional background that goes into another geographical area.'

The work was spread across four main venues in the city — Löwenbraukunst; Helmhaus; Cabaret Voltaire, which was also the birthplace of dada a century ago; and the 'Pavillon of Reflections', a gathering place where visitors could watch behind-the-scenes videos located on Lake Zurich.

Additionally, 30 satellite projects could be viewed in various locations of Zurich. In total, 130 artists have participated in the biennial. American artist Mike Bouchet procured a day’s worth of waste from Zurich’s denizens, working with sewage treatment specialists to form a sculpture consisting of 80,000 kg of faeces in Löwenbraukunst. German-born, Mexico City-based artist Marco Schmitt recalled Luis Buñuel’s 1962 surrealist film The Exterminating Angel (El Angel Exterminador) to create a surrealist movie with the city’s police officers, while Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan launched Paralympic athlete Edith Wolf-Hunkeler on a floating wheelchair into Lake Zurich — the performance piece had a few hiccups; one of the workers fell into the water.

Jankowski asserts that pairing artists with Zurich hosts would bring art into new places. 'It’s always when art touches something else, it has the tendency to infect it with art,' he said.

INFORMATION

’Manifesta 11’ is on view in Zurich through 18 September. For more information, visit the website

Zurich’s storied Dolder Grand hotel boasts an art collection befitting of a heavy-hitting gallery. The latest addition to owner Urs Schwarzenbach’s enviable collection is a new restaurant by the Swiss artist Rolf Sachs.

Inside the freshly minted Saltz – a portmanteau of the English and German words for ‘salt’ – Sachs has conjured an alpine adventure that dabbles on the right side of chalet kitsch, with Swiss railway clocks, postcards, mountain-rocks, climbing ropes and karabiners. The restaurant’s most coveted seats are – quite unusually – not found beside the panoramic windows, which offer sweeping views over the city and mountains beyond.

Instead, diners might be lured to the scorching Red Corner, decked out with special-edition Jean Prouvé ‘Fauteuil Direction’ chairs and illuminated by a neon work that recalls the Alps. Oak flooring and soft banquette seating divide the space while opposite, a crystalline wall installation made from salt offers a cooler respite. The all-day dining menu includes an eclectic mix of global cuisines, catering to the hotel’s well-heeled, globetrotting clientele; we recommend the signature absinthe and flamed pear ‘128’ cocktail to get you started. 

ADDRESS

Kurhausstrasse 65

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We hesitate to make any comment about appropriate names, but we couldn’t help noting the happy coincidence that an intriguing new exhibition in Zurich about scent has been put together by the Swiss video and installation artist Elodie Pong.

In this solo show at the Helmaus Zurich, Pong, who trained as a sociologist and anthropologist, charts new perceptual territory with art that you can smell. As she points out, scents establish nonverbal connections between people, objects and places, and while you can close your eyes, you can’t turn off your nose.

In Paradise Paradoxe, as the show is called, Pong probes the invisible olfactory architecture that surrounds us, with the help of plants created by a 3D printer and a robot that hurls the names of perfumes at a wall, not to mention a fragrance that has never been smelled before. In the accompanying video works, she juxtaposes ideas from current olfactory theory with the dancing human body, as a literal source of many and varied odours
In another room a mobile projector, mounted on a robot, displays the names of real perfumes on the walls, names that enable the hugely profitable perfume industry to build linguistic ‘boxes’ round something that – by its nature – transcends words. In addition, Pong has enlisted the help of scent scientist Roman Kaiser, one of the pioneers of headspace technology, to create a new perfume for the exhibition, which will also include concerts, talks and music workshops, not to mention a performance of pop songs on a theremin.

INFORMATION

Paradise Paradoxe is at the Helmhaus Zurich until 8 May. For more information, visit the website

Photography: courtesy of the artist

ADDRESS

Stadt Zurich
Helmhaus Zurich
Limmatquai 31
8001 Zurich 

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Hauser & Wirth’s outpost in Zurich has undergone a domestic reimagining, swapping its usual white cube format for a homely salon in which to explore artworks, books and prints during winter. Entitled ‘Salon d’Hiver’, the show draws inspiration from Hauser & Wirth’s publishing arm as well as its more recent initiative focusing on prints, editions and multiples.

Art objects and books by the likes of Dieter Roth, Louise Bourgeois, Martin Creed and Subodh Gupta are peppered throughout the gallery, nestled amongst furniture and other curios in an immersive environment conceived to feel like a home.

Wallpapers created by the gallery’s stable of artists serve as a brilliant backdrop to the exhibition – think Paul McCarthy’s butt plug-wielding, chocolate Santa Clauses; kaleidoscopic limbs by Pipilotti Rist; and a vibrant floral design by Caro Nieder. The gallery partnered with an antique furniture dealer to furnish the space, showcasing a Mies van der Rohe daybed amongst the art.

A comprehensive events programme is planned in tandem with ‘Salon d’Hiver’. The gallery has already hosted a children’s tea part as well as a duet of music evenings, with Martin Creed’s band and Allan Kaprow’s musical works taking the spotlight.

Visitors will be rewarded by repeat trips to the Swiss gallery, with new artworks set to regularly be installed throughout the duration of the exhibition. The current Christmas incarnation of the space will soon be rehung with a fresh selection of works, to creating an experience akin to a house being redecorated. We already feel at home.

INFORMATION

’Salon d’Hiver: Books - Prints - Multiples’ runs until 26 February. For more information visit the Hauser & Wirth website

ADDRESS

Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zurich
Switzerland

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Besides visiting one’s bank account, there are many more prosaic, but equally pleasurable, reasons to visit Zurich. This February, the city celebrates a hundred years of Dadaism alongside the bi-annual arts festival Manifesta in June.

All the better enjoyed while ensconced in the spruced up Marktgasse Hotel. Basel-based firm Miller & Maranta, and interior designers Kessler & Kessler and IDA 14 have turned one of the city’s oldest inns – really, two ancient buildings dating back to 1291 – into a sleekly modern 39-room bolthole.

The two-year project is a pleasing amalgam of restoration and renovation where original features such as stucco work, wall panelling and columns are neatly balanced by Nordic minimalism and Italian flourishes by way of Flos lamps and Cassina and Vitra furniture. 

In-house bar Baltho, wrapped in dark greens and stained woods, serves a mix of local small brew beers and cocktails infused with natural botanicals, while the adjoining restaurant makes a striking statement with its Stefan Burger installation and ethereal polygonal wired lamps. A combination of space and the engineering logistics of a spa and gym must have proved too much of a challenge – guests are directed to a gym and a luxe hammam complete with herbal steams and lather room a two minute walk down the road. 

ADDRESS

Marktgasse 17

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When Zurich’s Atlantis by Giardino first opened its doors in 1970, it became an instant magnet for visiting rockstars, acommodating the likes of Freddie Mercury and The Who, who - as the story goes - once hurled furniture into the pool after a local gig.

Designed in the 1960s by local architects Hans and Annemarie Hubacher and Peter Issler, the Y-shaped hotel sits on the edge of a forest at the foot of the Üetliberg mountains, not far from the city’s famous shopping avenue, Bahnhofstrasse. Now, after an extensive spruce-up by global hospitality design firm HBA - who have transformed the modernist building into a functioning hotel once again - the iconic property has recaptured its bygone glamour.

A tastefully muted colour palette dictates the elegant theme of the hotel, while plush materials -  from rich parquet flooring to supple leather headboards - add substance to the 95 guest rooms, highlighting cityscape vistas outside.

Downstairs, indulge in two-Michelin-starred chef Rolf Fliegauf’s eight course menu at Ecco, or sip on one of the local Swiss beers in the bar before heading to chef Bastian Mantey’s Asian inspired restaurant where Ayurveda-influenced vegetarian dishes take centre stage. This is all after day spent lounging by the 25-metre heated outdoor pool or in the spa, enjoying one of the treatments from the expansive list, of course.

ADDRESS

Döltschiweg 234

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Swiss designer Alfredo Häberli counts Camper and Volvo among his clients, and accordingly he's fashioned 25 Hours Hotel Zurich West like a perfectly formed product. Häberli's smooth, contemporary spirit is present throughout the hotel's bright public spaces and innovative built-ins in the compact rooms, graded by metals: silver, gold and platinum. He's chosen a canny palette of blues, yellows and browns that reflects the landscape outside, and scribbled sightseeing recommendations across random walls, adding a treasure-hunting element that goes further to bring the outdoors in. Soft furnishings and hand-tuffted carpets create a relaxed, warm stay, while the gritty façade blends seamlessly into the industrial heritage of the area. The Baulthaup-designed KitchenClub is available for culinary workshops and private parties.

ADDRESS

Pfingstweidstrasse 102
Zürich
Switzerland

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Twenty-seven years of house-hunting has finally paid off for the Zurich's Kunsthalle, the contemporary art museum that nurtures emerging talents from across Europe, then welcomes them back after they find success.

Now the Kunsthalle has reopened permanently in a repurposed space within the Löwenbräu art complex, where it has been squatting for a decade and a half. Swiss firms Gigon/Guyer Architects and Atelier WW collaborated on the refurbishment, crowning the 19th-century former brewery with a thick beer foam-like white-concrete arcade that slices across the top from one vantage point and slides down in the rear to form its own four-storey structure.

Inside, the design team added an intermediate floor to the cavernous, old industrial building, fitted vast windows, reinvented the foyer and built corridors that smooth the transition between the old wing and new. The concrete addition hosts light-infused exhibition spaces, an event hall and a rooftop lounge for rendezvous between the art patrons who frequent this reinvigorated corner of post-industrial Zurich.

The Kunsthalle will share space in the original wing with other, less established galleries, as well as the avant garde Migros art museum, a bookshop and café, all of which launch anew this week. Still, the Kunsthalle's inaugural exhibition will be the centrepiece: an unpacking of recent travel photos by Wolfgang Tillmans, the Turner prize winning German photographer who held his first museum show at the museum's now-defunct location in 1995. Joining the opening bill will be the young British sculptor Helen Marten, also with new work on hand.

INFORMATION

Limmatstrasse 270,
8005, Zurich

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For a strong dose of some of the best new graphic art from around the world look no further than the fourth annual Illustrative exhibition and forum, taking place now in Zurich.

Click here to see more images from Illustrative 08
The event this year features over 400 works by 35 acclaimed international artists, from the humorous to the quirky to the erotic and everything between. Check out our gallery above for a look at some of our favourites, including Luke Best, Olaf Hajek, Roman Bittner and Russel Cobb.