Regift

To mark its 40th anniversary, Swiss Institute (SI) revisits Regift, the landmark 2009 exhibition originally organized at SI in New York by John Miller with Piper Marshall. Co-produced by Swiss Institute and Luma Foundation, the anniversary edition is presented at Luma Westbau, bringing together original participants alongside an expanded selection of artists whose practices engage with questions of generosity, exchange, and value in contemporary contexts, with more than 50 artists across two floors reflecting four decades of SI’s program and international networks.

Participating artists include Darren Bader, Nairy Baghramian, Nina Beier, Anna-Sophie Berger, Barbara Bloom, Beatrice Bonino, John Clang, Matt Connors, Roberto Cuoghi, Catharine Czudej, Raúl de Nieves, Eliza Douglas, Maria Eichhorn, Nicole Eisenman, Rachel Fäth, Sylvie Fleury, Gina Fischli, Theaster Gates, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Rafik Greiss, Jasmine Gregory, Irena Haiduk, Camille Henrot, Jason Hirata, Loie Hollowell, Cui Jie, Mike Kelley, Gabriel Kuri, Leigh Ledare, Louise Lawler, Ghislaine Leung, Lorenza Longhi, Nancy Lupo, John Miller, Jill Mulleady, Shahryar Nashat, New Red Order, Jack O'Brien, Kayode Ojo, Nicolas Party, Greg Parma Smith, Adam Pendleton, Mai-Thu Perret, Walter Pfeiffer, Eric-Paul Riege, Walter Robinson, Carissa Rodriguez, Ugo Rondinone, Aura Rosenberg, Amy Sillman, Yutaka Sone, Tschabalala Self, Koki Tanaka, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Women's History Museum.

The original Regift exhibition examined systems of gift exchange and their relationship to economic structures, social reciprocity, and the ways in which gifts bind relations of mutual obligation. The exchange of gifts, though an ancient and widespread practice, remains an economic anomaly. Gift exchange resists a logic of pure equivalence. Like an artwork itself, a gift inhabits a space of incalculability: one shaped by unspoken obligations and reciprocities that are emotional, social, and hierarchical as much as material. Regift takes this premise as a point of departure, proposing that the artwork and the gift share a fundamental resistance to being fully accounted for within systems of measurable value.

In this new iteration, for SI’s 40th anniversary, Regift broadens its scope to consider the rituals surrounding gift-giving and the celebratory occasions that prompt such exchanges, from birthdays and anniversaries to communal and spiritual observances. The exhibition also looks beyond Western paradigms of exchange to consider global practices of giving, such as offerings made to ancestors and acts of planting or dedicating gifts toward future generations. Through these expanded lenses, Regift explores how gifts, both material and symbolic, mediate relationships across time, culture, and economy, while continuing to challenge the boundaries between generosity and obligation, value and meaning.

To support Swiss Institute’s future as a platform for emerging artists for the next 40 years, works from the exhibition have been generously donated to SI and are available for purchase. Sales inquiries may be directed to Nicole Pezzullo at Hauser & Wirth (nicolepezzullo@hauserwirth.com).

Regift is co-produced by Swiss Institute and Luma Foundation. The exhibition is curated by Alison Coplan, Stefanie Hessler, and John Miller.