At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition–the Venice Biennale, the Swiss Pavilion presents Endgültige Form wird von der Architektin am Bau bestimmt. (The final form will be defined by the architect on site.), a project commissioned by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and curated by Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins, Axelle Stiefel, and Myriam Uzor.
The exhibition revisits the short-lived Kunsthalle by Lisbeth Sachs for the 1958 Saffa exhibition for women’s work in Zurich. Honoring Sachs’ legacy, the project opens a contemporary conversation around forms of collaboration and feminist building practices.
Annexe—Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins, and Myriam Uzor—is a group of architects who value and foreground a culture of construction which starts with what is already at hand. Through acts of attachment and transformation, they explore how fiction can revive the voices and visions of women designers from the past. For their project Endgültige Form wird von der Architektin am Bau bestimmt. Annexe is working with the embedded artist Axelle Stiefel.
The Biennale remains open until Sunday, November 23, 2025.
Upcoming events: Pavilion Days and book launch
As part of the Pavilion Days, the Swiss Pavilion, together with other country pavilions at the Venice Biennale, will hold a series of public events on 9 and 10 October 2025. The Pavilion Days are an initiative of the Global Commissioners Group, in which various national pavilions actively participate.
Thursday, October 9, 2025 and Friday, October 10, 2025
10:30am and 2pm: Guided tours of the national pavilions organized by the Global Commissioners Group
Get together and tour at the Swiss Pavilion in the presence of the curators Elena Chiavi, Kathrin Füglister, Amy Perkins, Axelle Stiefel, and Myriam Uzor
Further information and registration form can be found in this link.
Friday, October 10, 2025
6:30pm: Book launch Lisbeth Sachs–Animate Architecture*: round table with author of the book, architecture and art historian Rahel Hartmann Schweizer, architect and historian Irina Davidovici and cultural anthropologist Michael Hiltbrunner, followed by an apéro, at Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi (vaporetto stops: Zattere or Accademia). No registration required.
*Accompanying the exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion, Lisbeth Sachs: Animate Architecture has been published by gta Verlag Zurich. This work is the English translation of Lisbeth Sachs: Architektin, Forscherin, Publizistin. (published 2020) by Rahel Hartmann Schweizer and includes a new foreword by Annexe.
Follow Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Pavilion on official channels for updates on event details. From this link you can sign up to Annexe’s mailing list to receive detailed information about their upcoming events.