From From May 15 to 20, 2026, "Frame in Frame – Swiss Design in Motion," the official Swiss contribution to New York City Design Week 2026, will take place in New York.
Presented by the Swiss Consulate General in New York and curated by Christian Herren, the exhibition spans the 19th floor of the WSA building overlooking Manhattan and brings together recently rediscovered experimental films produced in Switzerland between the 1960s and 1990s.
The films were created as part of the educational program "Film+Design," initiated by Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of Design (@hkbasel_fhnw). Early on, the program explored how graphic design could be conceived for television and electronic visual media. These works are among the forerunners of what is now called motion design and at the same time align with the structural cinema of their time. Many of the films rely on repetitions, minimal shifts, or typographic sequences, creating a visual intensity far removed from the cliché of sober Swiss design.
The artist Daan Couzijn transforms the material into a multi-channel video and audio installation. The scenography by @pantertourron includes the modular "Anagram Sofa" for Vitra, the "Hall Lamps," as well as a special custom piece developed specifically for the exhibition by USM. Ben Ganz transforms Andreas Christen’s "Aluminium Shelf" from Lehni into a pentagonal projection architecture, in whose openings films from Basel appear alongside works from the zhdk project "Permutations."
Late modern Swiss systems thinking thus meets moving images that translate similar constructive principles into flickering sequences and optical instability. The carpet "Stripes" by Trix and Robert Haussmann, produced by Ruckstuhl in collaboration with Edition-H, together with the "Cloud Lamp" by Susi and Ueli Berger, produced by WB From, extends this dialogue through unstable patterns, diffuse light, and a more open interpretation of Swiss Style.
Studio Volume designed the visual identity of the exhibition, the photos are by Matthew Gordon.
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