Regift
Swiss Institute New York at 40
13.06.2026 - 06.09.2026
To mark its 40th anniversary, Swiss Institute revisits Regift, the landmark 2009 exhibition originally organised in New York by John Miller. Presented at Luma Westbau and co-produced with Luma Foundation, this new iteration brings together over 40 artists across two floors and reflects four decades of SI’s programme and international networks.
Originally focused on systems of gift exchange and their relationship to value, reciprocity, and obligation, Regift explores the gift as an economic and social anomaly that resists fixed equivalence and measurable worth, much like the artwork itself.
Expanding this premise, the exhibition considers the rituals and contexts of giving, from personal celebrations to communal and spiritual practices, while also looking beyond Western frameworks to global traditions. In doing so, it examines how gifts, both material and symbolic, mediate relationships across time, culture, and economy.
Conceived in part as a fundraiser for SI, the exhibition is accompanied by a programme of events and performances that extend its focus on participation, reciprocity, and collective experience.