% for Art

The exhibition departs from a pairing. A presentation of documents from historical archives about public artworks in Zurich’s built environment is displayed within an installation by the artist Coumba Samba titled The National Expo.

In The National Expo, Samba has scattered various bollards, often used to deflect traffic or steer pedestrians, around the gallery space. They are painted in car colours taken from incidents of vehicle ramming attacks during the George Floyd protests of 2020 in the US. The history of terrorism in the US has led to several counterterrorism initiatives, wars and ideological narratives regarding homeland security and national unity. Samba questions our everyday interactions with public objects, which exist as signifiers of histories and national identity. Filing cabinets in the space showcasing the archival documents are also colour coded using pastels from around the city of Zurich.

"% for Art: Regulating Civic Space in Zurich" highlights the circumstances and interests that influence art in architecture. The exhibition is based on research conducted by students in the Master of Advanced Studies programme at the Institute of History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich. Under programme director André Bideau the students completed ten comparative case studies based on their findings in the extensive holdings of the gta archives. The exhibition covers the period from historicism to modernism to the more recent present; crucial questions were raised by art-in-architecture works in the city of Zurich. The case studies highlight turning points in the urbanisation process within the interrelated fabric of urban development, construction projects, key political moments and artistic concepts. Students asked how art and architecture are subject to shifting values, much like the public space and society in which they are embedded.

Opening: September 23, 2025, 6 p.m.