Exhibition Pierre Huyghe makes moments at the Fondation Beyeler unique
For the first time, a solo exhibition by French installation artist Pierre Huyghe is on show in Switzerland. The Fondation Beyeler in Riehen BS invites visitors to experience moments that are as unique as they are fleeting.
22.05.2026, 14:31
SDA
As soon as you enter the first room, you step onto a soft, printed carpet that runs through the entire exhibition. You stand on the work, "Light Dust" (2026), which looks different depending on how the light falls on it.
The only thing in the room is a wall with a hole around which ants are cavorting. This is the installation "Environment" (2011). And behind it, the white exhibition wall is pierced by a window that is sometimes opaque and sometimes transparent in a changing rhythm. The space will never be exactly the same twice.
"Living, changing, evolving - the concept of metamorphosis is very important," said exhibition curator Mouna Mekouar to the Keystone-SDA news agency. The exhibition was developed site-specifically for the rooms of the Fondation Beyeler and conceived as a landscape to immerse visitors in Huyghe's works.
One room features a film showing an anthropomorphic creature interacting with the abandoned remains of everyday human life in the nuclear exclusion zone around Fukushima ("Human Mask", 2014). And once you are standing in front of a stone floating in the water ("Cambrian Explosion 19", 2013), only to be torn from the moment by a sound from another room.
Moments outside of time
And then there are the dark holes in the walls, from which breathing noises emanate, as if the rooms or something between them were panting heavily. The works inhabit the spaces and the visitors take part in them, as Mekouar said. They could be anywhere and at any time, "outside of time" - this is precisely Pierre Huyghe's talent.
Some of the installations dominate their spaces visually and acoustically, often with strong contrasts, while others are minimalist and simply there, yet hard to miss. The exhibition works above all if you allow yourself to become involved in its changeability and observe its effect in the moment, rather than looking for an order with a beginning and an end.
Pierre Huyghe was born in Paris in 1962 and works in the Chilean capital Santiago. His exhibitions have brought him worldwide recognition and his works are represented in numerous top-class collections. The exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler opens on Sunday and runs until September 13.
