Tendenzen at 50: Portrait of an Exhibition
Wednesday, 4 March to Friday, 8 May 2026
Opening: Tuesday, 3 March 2026, 6–8 pm
Honey, I shrunk Tendenzen! Scales of an Exhibition. Panel discussion with Christ & Gantenbein, Alessandro Passero, Irina Davidovici and Frida Grahn
3 March, 6.30 pm, gta exhibitions, ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg
The 1975 exhibition Tendenzen: Neuere Architektur im Tessin at ETH Zurich marked a decisive moment in Swiss architecture. Drawing on extensive research by Irina Davidovici and Frida Grahn, Tendenzen at 50 revisits the original exhibition fifty years later. Curated by Martin Steinmann and designed by Thomas Boga, the 1975 exhibition introduced a younger generation of Ticino architects, among them Luigi Snozzi, Aurelio Galfetti, Livio Vacchini, and Mario Botta, to a wider public, revealing a regional architectural culture grounded in material precision and conceptual autonomy. The exhibition and eponymous catalogue quickly became touchstones of contemporary architectural discourse, circulating internationally and prompting journals such as Oppositions, A+U, and L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui to devote thematic issues to Ticino architecture.
Tendenzen at 50 re-examines the 1975 exhibition both as a cultural document and as a device for distribution for architectural ideas, whose circulation unfolded in the analogue era of Xerox reproductions, letters, and slides. It explores how these ideas travelled, how the exhibition shaped discourse, and why certain curatorial acts have remained relevant across decades. Previously unseen materials, including manuscripts and working notes, correspondence, layout studies and original architectural drawings, shed light on the curatorial processes and the international dissemination of the historic exhibition. These archival materials are complemented by a large-scale model reconstructing the exhibition, and by on-site photography by Stefano Graziani.
Curated by Irina Davidovici and Frida Grahn. A collaboration between gta exhibitions and gta Archive. Model by Studio Christ Gantenbein.