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Starting anew: after directing various prestigious institutions, Adam Szymczyk is taking over at the Swiss Architecture Museum. <\/p>\n
\u00a9Gina Foll <\/p>\n
Adam Szymczyk is best known as a contemporary art\u00a0curator who\u00a0oversaw the 2017 edition of documenta,\u00a0the first edition\u00a0of the art show\u00a0that\u00a0was split between Kassel,\u00a0its original\u00a0setting in Germany, and Athens.\u00a0In January, he took on a new post as director of the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel. Swissinfo spoke to him about his\u00a0leap from art\u00a0to architecture\u00a0\u2013 and why this switch is no rupture at all.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
August 8, 2026 – 10:00\n<\/p>\n
When contemporary art curator Adam Szymczyk applied to lead one of the world\u2019s foremost architecture institutions, he\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0see it as a dramatic career pivot.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t have the feeling I was making a big step or changing something fundamentally,\u201d he says, dismissing the notion that he has traded art for architecture. Instead, the longtime curator sees the move as a natural extension of a career spent crossing disciplinary boundaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI see architecture\u202fmore as\u202fone\u202fpossible form of expression,\u201d he\u00a0tells Swissinfo during a meeting held\u00a0near his home in Zurich\u00a0as he took a\u00a0a\u00a0flu-induced break from work.\u202f<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are affinities and intersections between art and architecture, \u202fso definitely I am not throwing away art and moving into architecture. I wouldn\u2019t know how\u00a0to.\u202fI\u00a0think I was pretty open to other disciplines when I dealt with art\u202f\u2013\u00a0I was always digging into music or literature.\u202fI think it was articulated\u202fin the fullest at documenta,\u202fwhere we tried to really touch on every imaginable field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A curator at the edge of art <\/p>\n
Born in Poland, Szymczyk studied art history\u202fin Warsaw. In the 1990s, he joined\u202fFoksal\u202fGallery, a non-commercial contemporary art gallery that challenged the traditional structures of the art market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He has\u202flived\u202fmainly in\u202fSwitzerland since 2002, when he became director of the\u202fKunsthalle Basel. Unlike a museum, a Kunsthalle does\u202fnot have\u202fa permanent collection. Instead, it is a public exhibition space that\u202fhosts temporary\u00a0art exhibitions. He has Swiss citizenship and considers Basel home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u00a0rose to prominence as the artistic director of\u202fdocumenta,\u00a0a quinquennial exhibition that has often been seen as a bellwether for new directions in contemporary art. Szymczyk staged a part of the 2017 show in Athens, the first time it had not taken place exclusively in Kassel, Germany. In January, he started work as the director of the Swiss Architecture Museum, \u202fwhich now shares a building with the\u202fKunsthalle in Basel.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Szymczyk (centre) speaks in front of a banner expressing gratitude at the close of documenta 14 in Kassel, September 2017. Besides, or because of its peculiar global prestige, the documenta also leaves its heads exposed to all sorts of criticism. <\/p>\n
KEYSTONE\/DPA\/Uwe Zucchi <\/p>\n
A museum without objects<\/p>\n
Initially focused primarily on Swiss architecture, the museum was founded in 1984 as a private initiative. Since 2006, it has expanded its horizons to become more international. It\u00a0mounts\u00a0about four exhibitions a year.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u202fis not \u201ca traditional kind of museum, which is usually a large institution with some sort of collection,\u201d\u202fSzymczyk\u202fsays. Even its public initials (S\u00a0AM) are less\u00a0an acronym than a constructivist signature. \u201cThis one has no collection.\u202fIt\u2019s\u202fnot a museum of objects, it\u2019s\u202fmore of an\u202fidea of a museum that should propose some understanding or\u202fdifferent ways\u202fof understanding architecture through exhibitions,\u202fand hopefully also publications and other formats.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Swiss Architecture Museum\u2019s exhibition \u2018\u2018What Was Could Be: Experiments Between Preservation and Architecture\u201d (2025). <\/p>\n
Tom Bisig <\/p>\n
The absence of a collection gives the museum \u201cquite a lot of freedom,\u201d Szymczyk says. \u201cEach of the\u202ffour\u202fformer directors of this museum tried to\u00a0materialise\u00a0something of their understanding of what\u2019s important in and about architecture, and so,\u202fin a way,\u202fthis layering of exhibitions since\u202f1984\u202fand different ways of thinking about architecture is really what constitutes the museum. It\u2019s\u202flike a virtual receptacle in which we can imagine different ideas and ways of showing and discussing architecture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Questioning the need to build<\/p>\n
The\u202fcurrent exhibition\u00a0External link<\/a>at the museum, Groundwork, was conceived before Szymczyk was on board, but it addresses many of the issues that interest him.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n It examines architecture in the face of social crises and ecological challenges through three films about the work of three architects: Xu Tiantian, who is working to navigate the pressures of heritage, tourism and marine ecology on Meizhou Island in\u202fsoutheast\u202fChina; the Berlin-based collective\u00a0bplus.xyz, which is initiating a European Citizens\u2019 Initiative to\u00a0promote\u202fthe retention and rehabilitation of existing buildings over urban development, and\u202fCarla Jua\u00e7aba, who is creating pavilions to support local communities in Brazil who are resisting extractive agriculture.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n While the three approaches have \u201cnot much to do with each other formally,\u201d Szymczyk says, \u201cthere is a shared attitude in asking about the condition of the site and trying to understand the site. \u202fI\u2019m more interested in practices that are sensitive to the context of architectural production, and I\u2019m not so concerned with just producing one excellent building after the other.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Groundwork\u2019, currently running at the Swiss Architecture Museum. <\/p>\n Tom Bisig <\/p>\n That reflects a more general movement in architecture away from \u201ciconic\u201d buildings, he says. Current debate is \u201cputting in question the very idea of building, and going towards asking how to modify, how to perform \u2018the minimal intervention\u2019,\u202fwhich is a term coined by Lucius Burckhardt,\u201d\u202fa Swiss sociologist and economist who was an important thinker in archaeological theory.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m interested in how the place inflects the decisions of those who build and how they might change their minds, and how they can actually refrain from building something that is too imposing, but instead do something that is sensitive to many aspects,\u201d\u202fSzymczyk says.\u00a0<\/p>\n The debut<\/p>\n The first exhibition\u202fhe\u202finitiated\u202ffor the museum opens\u202fin September\u202fand\u202ffocuses on the London-based architect Tony Fretton, who has built\u202fart\u00a0centres\u00a0and\u00a0museums\u00a0External link<\/a>in the United Kingdom, Denmark, the\u202fNetherlands\u202fand Norway.\u202f\u202fOne of these is\u202fthe Fuglsang\u00a0Museum\u00a0External link<\/a>on the Danish\u202fisland of Lolland.\u202f\u202f\u201cIt\u2019s saturated with light that is redirected architecturally in such\u202fa\u202fway to create the best possible conditions for viewing their collections,\u201d he says.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u202fis\u202fparticularly\u202ffascinated by\u202fFretton\u2019s\u202fwriting about his projects, both built and unbuilt. \u201cYou can see the amount of thinking that goes into very small decisions,\u201d\u202fhe\u202fsays. \u201cIt\u2019s all about questioning\u00a0\u2013\u00a0like why I\u2019m going to build this door this way or why this window has to be there and not there, why this size, why this material.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fuglsang Museum, Lolland, Denmark (2008). <\/p>\n Uncube <\/p>\n Fretton\u2019s\u202fdrawings, he adds, \u201cnearly obsessively, or very stubbornly, attack certain tiny and sometimes technical issues, such as door handles or hinges.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n The Swiss Architecture Museum\u2019s audience is a mix of architecture professionals and an art-interested audience, Szymczyk says. Admission to the museum is included in the ticket price for the neighbouring\u202fKunsthalle.\u202fSzymczyk says he is realistic about how many visitors the museum can hope to draw. \u201cIt\u2019s more about building an interesting public program on different layers, which I think the museum has,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Culture\n <\/p>\n One size does not fit all: Zurich architects reevaluate Modernism\u2019s legacy <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 4, 2026 <\/p>\n Le Corbusier never rests in peace: two professors from ETH Zurich discuss how to reframe the forgotten narratives and exclusions that lie beneath Modernist architecture. <\/p>\n![\"S](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20_S-AM_Groundwork_\u00a9TomBisig.jpg\")
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