Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York

04/09/2026

Final Days !
Tiran Willemse: Dweller
Closing April 12, 2026

It’s the final days to view the first solo exhibition by artist, dancer, and choreographer Tiran Willemse (). Dweller marks Willemse’s debut exploration of moving image and sound.

In this video, Willemse reflects on his use of “Kuduro,” the Angolan “dance of the mad.” Drawing on years of classical ballet training alongside African dance studies, his work brings together Black and feminist perspectives to explore the intensity and “mania” often projected onto female protagonists. Willemse then asks us, the audience, how we confront his almost uncanny gestures, which oscillate between control and instinct, form and formlessness. Drawing on ritualistic sound, familial language, and personal history, he further explores the politics of embodiment that is shaped by colonized minds, bodies, and land. In Dweller, he channels these experimental choreographies into an archive of dance, mapping the body’s path through time and space.

Full video on Vimeo linked in bio !

Video by Nate Reininga ()

04/08/2026

Final Week !
Saodat Ismailova: Amanat
Closing April 12, 2026

This week is the final opportunity to view the first institutional solo exhibition in the United States by Uzbek artist and filmmaker Saodat Ismailova ().

In this video, Ismailova speaks about her newly commissioned film, Amanat. Set in Kyrgyzstan’s Arslanbob walnut forest, the film explores a haunting ecosystem shaped by the hallucinatory effects and mythic presence of the walnuts. By incorporating the forest’s sonic elements into her exhibition, Ismailova invites us to experience the landscape as a storyteller. The oral histories embedded within the forest, combined with the visceral memories and personal associations it evokes, foreground a metaphysical process of transformation and renewal, much like a seed growing into a forest.

Amanat is co-commissioned by Swiss Institute, LUMA Foundation (), and Kunsthalle Bern (). Following the presentation at SI, the exhibition will travel in an expanded form to LUMA Arles and conclude at Kunsthalle Bern.

Full video on Vimeo linked in bio !

Video by Nate Reininga ()

12/05/2025

It’s the final month to see Mona Filleul’s Sissy Institute at SI ! On view through January 4, 2026. 💕✨

In this video, Mona Filleul () details her artistic practice, which subverts cis-masculine norms through works that blur the boundaries between painting, assemblage, installation, and architecture. Beginning from two-dimensional processes, Filleul reveals the many layers of her practice that range from the handmade papers and pigments to the careful scenography that creates a space for the increasingly policed expressions of q***r and trans subjectivities. Set within a unique architectural refuge, her work comes alive through the embodiment of listening and electricity.

Video by Nate Reininga ()

12/04/2025

One month left to see Bagus Pandega’s first institutional exhibition, Daya Benda, at SI ! On view through January 4, 2026.

Pandega’s () exhibition is centered on present ecological crises of resource extraction and the evolving relationships between the natural and the artificial. With the title meaning “object power,” Daya Benda grants autonomy to plants in the absence of the human. In this interview, Pandega speaks to his experimental ethos and creative process, the fusing of machine-making and natural processes. 🌱⚙️

🔗 Full video on Vimeo linked in bio

Video by Nate Reininga ()

10/27/2020

Swiss Institute is pleased to present FEAR TOUCH POLICE, a new multimedia project organized by New York-based artist Sable Elyse Smith in advance of the 6th Edition of SI's Architecture and Design Series in 2022, which she will be curating. The first issue, FEAR, features contributions from Jessica Lynne, Paul Pfeiffer, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Johan Grimonprez and Jason Moran. Visit http://ftp.life/ for more.

10/13/2020

Help Performance Space (.space.new.york) provide housing for Black and trans, housing-insecure artists!

During the month of June, in the midst of the BLM protests in New York, Angel, Danyele, Donte, Rj, and Stev – the Artists in Residents (AIRs)—were invited by People’s Space — a group of artists from their “02020” initiative—to work with Performance Space New York. What started as a project to offer refuge for protesters quickly shifted to a mutual aid space for those facing houselessness. After securing temporary housing for the AIRs, it soon became apparent that the five artists needed a more permanent solution.

People’s Space and Performance Space .space.new.york are now helping the AIRs raise funds to collectively purchase a home outside of NYC, and to provide seed funding for their artistic careers. With your support, the AIRs will be able to secure both long-term housing for themselves and eventually other houseless, Black and trans artists.

On Thursday, October 15th from 12-12:30PM, SI's IG Live will feature a conversation between artist Angel Robertson (AIRs) and Jonathan Gonzalez (The People’s Space) in which Robinson will discuss her intentions with Deeds for AIRs and her upcoming installation, Invasion @ Christopher Street Pier, a mini-Ball open to all aiming to amplify the strength in community and need for shared space.

Help them raise $60,000 by October 15 to lift up impacted communities and most of all, help keep them safe, sustained, and supported!

The donation will not go to Performance Space;
100% of the proceeds will go directly to the AIRs.

Visit gofundme.com/deedsforairs to donate.

Residents:
Danyele Brown , Donte McKenzie , Rj Eve Mertus .rj , Stev .__ , Angel Robertson

Illustration by Tuere Lawton Photo by Maria Baranova

05/26/2020

Tonight at 6PM ! SI Presents: Cally Spooner on Dead Time. Listen live on Montez Press Radio !

Cally Spooner's exhibition SWEAT, SHAME, ETC., held at SI from 2018-19, was conceived by the artist as a cartography of the present. At the center of the exhibition was a work named Untitled (2018), which consisted of a number of exhibition plinths constructed from olive oil soap. This material, associated with the day-to-day task of cleansing the body, provided a support structure for other works in the exhibition. During the current period, in which soap and essential care work have been pushed to the forefront of everyday life, SI's Chief Curator, Laura McLean-Ferris, revisits the exhibition in conversation with the artist.

04/15/2020

"We use money because we have to use what we have. We must begin to destabilize the absolute fact of monetary exchange. Our current system is our starting point towards a new one. We sustain ourselves as a studio of people and things. To demonstrate this economy, all facets of it, is to show that it is possible. Our studio is just one way of moving towards art as a field that embodies the principles and aestheconomics of living."

Today on Art-agenda, Irena Haiduk speaks with Hendrik Folkerts about REMASTER, her solo exhibition at SI.

Irena Haiduk, REMASTER, Cabaret Èconomique, Dani Bauer, Irena Haiduk, Scott Kiernan, Dean Kissick, Laura McLean-Ferris, Daniel Merritt, Christian Schmitz, Maggie Selage Working, 2020. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Anna Shteynshleyger.

03/19/2020

Jan Kiefer's "Skiing Snowman" is featured on Contemporary Art Writing Daily ! Head over to SI's website to view documentation of the exhibition.

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02/19/2020

Spike Art Magazine's Adina Glickstein spent Valentine's Day with Irena Haiduk and her cast of performers at Swiss Institute. Read more about her experience at "Cabaret Économique" here.

What did you get for Valentine’s Day? Some New Yorkers were treated to a unique blend of sexual energy and frustration in Irena Haiduk’s “Cabaret Économique”, performed as part of her current show at the Swiss Institute.