Marc Hungerbühler introduces his climate-conscious architectural projects

“Climate challenges shape how we view the world as a habitat and a theater of behavior.”

Marc Anton Kyu Hungerbühler (1963) is a New York City-based multimedia artist and curator with both European and Asian roots, whose career spans more than thirty years and four continents. Born in Switzerland to a Swiss father and a Korean mother, he studied at the Parsons School of Design, NY, and has exhibited his works in Asia, the United States, and Europe. Exhibitions include the Beijing Biennial (2009), the Research Pavilion at the Venice Biennial in 2017, and the Bangkok Biennial in 2018, among others. Recipient of multiple grants and awards, he also served as a cultural correspondent for Swiss media in New York (1993–1999). His writings and photographs were published by The New York Times, St. Galler Tagblatt, Aero Review, Die Ostschweiz, and in numerous art catalogs. In 2002, he and his wife Alexandra founded the:artist:network, an independent arts organization providing art exhibitions and consulting services. The husband-and-wife duo has since produced multiple successful site-specific art projects worldwide. As the network’s director Marc has organized and curated more than 40 international exhibitions and established residency programs in the U.S., Switzerland, and China.

Having just returned from the Mojave, Marc discusses with ZONE NY various projects from his long praxis in the arts as both an artist and curator. He is mentioning his major past undertakings, such as the Beijing Biennial or “Lingua Franca” project, and, most importantly, he is introducing his recent work which lies at the intersection of art and architecture while, at the same time, bringing into focus climate issues. Indeed, his projects are environmentally mindful with a sustainable approach to architecture and design. Last but not least, the artist talks about New York – his adopted home – and what has changed in this city since 2020.

Can you introduce yourself in regard to your recent activities as an artist and curator?

My work is multi-medial; different disciplines overlap according to working parameters. Lately, focusing on personal development in various media as an artist has outpaced my curatorial work. For example, from 2019 to 2021, my wife and I developed and executed an architectural project in Switzerland, designing and constructing micro- apartments. The scale and complexity of the project entailed a project phase and an execution phase that lasted nearly three years. Architecture and development have always been integral to my practice, parallel to more studio-centric work, like printmaking, drawing, painting, photography, and video. In this sense, my approach is multi-disciplinary and collective.

Does your Swiss-Korean heritage play an essential role in your art and curatorial praxis?

The short answer is yes. Without running the obvious and often used cliché-rich comparisons between eastern and western culture, I know that “eastern and western” philosophies play into personal dichotomies. However, artistic practice still evolves autonomously. 

Your curatorial focus is on photography and multi-media installation. What was the most exciting project you have worked on as a curator?

Different curatorial projects produce different responses and ideas. They are site-specific. My appointment as the curatorial director and initiator for the Beijing Biennial was the most significant and organizationally challenging curatorial. In this function, my wife and I managed several international curators and a fantastic Chinese ground team featuring over eighty-five artistic positions from twenty-five countries. Logistically complicated, such opus magnum extends the curatorial practice and deploys the ability to collaborate, coordinate and maneuver through diverse conditions and the appropriate entities, such as national and private foundations, galleries, ministries of culture, corporate funding, media, the sub-curation and the artists themselves.

Other situations require concept-driven approaches involving extensive research and writing, such as “Lingua Franca, a public intervention” and the proposed project for the Havana Biennial in 2019. 

In one interview, you said: ” The most successful curatorial is the one that features visual impulses that can change the way you think about art. ” In this regard, what do you consider the most successful curatorial of your career?

Again, the Beijing Biennial was relevantly invoking a sense of harmony and collaborative internationalism that Beijing was seeking. Sharing center stage with such an incredible array of Chinese artists, curators, and international counterparts promoted  optimism for a mutually beneficial and progressive approach in contemporary art, which unfortunately belongs to the past. Similarly, we have experienced this in Cuba, but political climates change, and doors that shut will open at other times.

You and your wife Alexandra have worked together on various projects, such as the already mentioned ” Lingua Franca” (Switzerland. 2011). Can you tell us more about the performance ” Fly Together”, which was part of it?

All projects that the artist network develops are joint ventures with Alexandra. For example, in the Beijing Biennial case, she conceived and presented her exhibition, “Transitional Aesthetics,” co-curated with Jaishri Abichandani. As for “Lingua Franca,” we spent significant time visiting and choosing artists from around the globe. Alexandra is the brain of all organizational aspects of large undertakings and handles communication and fundraising.

I have worked extensively with the Chinese artist Li Wei over the years. He is an excellent conceptual and performance artist. He takes charge of any situation I throw at him and is a fantastic collaborator. When we develop an idea together, it is like Ping-Pong with the mutual goal of scoring together. His ability to absorb and utilize input is remarkable. “Fly Together” is no exception. I wanted Li Wei to use a Swiss mountain patrol helicopter as a base point for his performance. So we developed a scenario where he would hang on the machine through an intense aero-aerobic routine over the Lake of St. Moritz, igniting flares on hand and feet at a point hovering over the audience followed by gestural flight path, drawing with the red smoke, high up into the air.

What is the mission and current activities of the:artist:network, an independent arts organization you founded with Alexandra back in 2002?

The:artist:network had a defining mission in its hay days. It prioritized physical locations in New York and Beijing, and ran complete curatorial programs accompanied by residency projects. It is organizationally and practically complicated and logistically tasking. We moved away from this model after the Beijing Biennial when we dissolved physical locations and focused on purely curatorial projects for clients and partners. Our efforts, freed from real estate, allowed for enormous flexibility and concentrated on assembling international artists for site-specific exhibitions. Running a residency program in multiple locations is labor intensive and becomes quite institutional. We decided not to continue that model for the time being. 

The:artist:network developed an online gallery around 2005 and an interview broadcast series, “Art after Dark,” around the same time. Web-based presentations, especially broadcasting, are a curatorial strategy. Up to the Bangkok Biennial and the CF project for Venice from Jeanette Doyle, some ideas were a clear outlier for this new mode of art presentation, which could have been undoubtedly effective during the pandemic.

Having spent increasing time in my studio, the:artist:network as an exhibition platform is on hold. We are more interested in redirecting our activities, bringing new ideas about art, architecture, and the environment into focus. There are, however, many exhibition projects on the back burner.

Recently, you have been designing and constructing micro-apartments. How did this idea and the whole concept originate?

The concept of micro-apartments originates from the need for higher density development in the urban context. Besides these initial zoning-use considerations, micro-units focus on polyfunctional areas within a minimal footprint to avoid dead space. Larger common areas function as meeting places, shared offices, fitness, and entertainment. This concept reflects the need for a generation that appreciates the sharing economy, collaboration, sustainability, and privacy. In megacities like Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai, a shift to smaller residential dwellings is intuitive, both from an energy and density perspective; our project, however, was built in St. Gallen, a mid-size Swiss city of roughly 80,000 residents. One of the primary industries of St. Gallen is an elite school of economics that will grow at the rate of a thousand students per year in the next five years. The program for this project reflects the apparent need for student housing and the increasing demand for single-occupancy spaces. Since the completion of the project in 2021, we have observed a trend in the city’s development of micro-units, previously thought of as too risky and out of context.

What brought you to the field of architecture in the first place?

Construction work was always a way to earn a living while studying in New York. And after college, the answer to the need for an affordable studio space determined everything. So I became versed in developing large industrial spaces in non-desirable locations in Brooklyn and rented them out to artists and filmmakers to finance my studio. Over the years, a group of collaborators and I got better at it. We moved from Broadway near the Williamsburg Bridge to the Brooklyn Waterfront, and pushed deeper into Bushwick to expand. After getting married and with the arrival of my first child, we opened the artist network space on Canal and Broadway. We were converting a 5000 sq ft manufacturing space into twelve studios and gallery space to launch an international artist residency and exhibition program. The move from Brooklyn to Manhattan was challenging for many reasons, but it honed our skills in expanding our activities as an arts organization and as developers. By the time we moved the entire family to Beijing in 2007, we had organized several locations downtown for hosting residency artists, curators, and exhibitors. The following year, the artist network established venues and networks in Beijing, resulting in the construction of residential housing for our clients. In addition, I have renovated and built in Switzerland, Spain, and New York. The architectural practice is both a necessity and a passion.

In your opinion, where is the intersection of architecture and art?

Architecture, both modern and vernacular, speaks to its culture very cohesively. Concerns of identity, process, and behavior are social concepts in architecture versus the peculiarities of art making. It is directly revealing in its intention. The mastery of the medium is the transformative human experience of scale, form, and space. A Swiss architect Christian Kerez says architecture gives him a critical reference point. The framework within one deliberates all possible formulations. The innovation, selection, and final form speak to architecture’s core. Sculptural practice, conversely, is idiosyncratic and conveys significance in how particular and successful the sculptural inquiry may be.

What are your plans for the near future?

We are working on a concept for an off-grid desert dwelling exploring issues of hydro and wind. The desert-dwelling is a project that I have toyed with for many years, as far back as 2007. The artist network developed curatorial and architectural strategies in China’s Weichang county. Located half a day’s ride north of Beijing, Weichang sits at the edge of the Gobi desert. Environmental intervention using forestation, the Chinese government has aimed to hold back the relentless desertification of the Gobi and create a unique natural habitat for desert life. Chinese artist Huang Yan, one of our central collaborators from Beijing, initiated the Weichang Yan Gerber International Arts Festival and developed a voluminous art village, incorporating artist housing, workshops, museums, and exhibition spaces. In this effort, I encountered my initial contact with the desert as a theme, site-specific, and its original nomadic culture. In 2008, we joined our partner on a research trip to Morocco. Starting with the notion of a residential development project near Essaouira, we investigated the western shoreline between Agadir and Safi.

I rediscovered my love for North Africa and Moroccan culture on this trip. Due to an ongoing building project for our residency in Beijing the same year, immediate plans for Morocco were sequestered. However, revisiting the location in 2017, possible scenarios for an artist network outpost resurfaced. The building methodology and the high level of local crafts, especially stone masonry, mosaics, tadelakt (plaster finishes), and how this tradition has survived to this day, are fascinating. Using partly submerged rammed earth structures utilizing thermal mass in combination with solar and wind is an exciting proposition. Sculpture and architecture use similar methodologies apart from functionality and energy concerns. I cherish both disciplines independently, but congruence often leads to hybrids rather than typologies.

Climate challenges shape how we view the world as a habitat and a theater of behavior. I excel in extreme situations, where cultures adapt to fragile systems, and the struggle becomes one of internal space. The target of inquiry is the self and individual effort to condition us to pull through. Water scarcity is an increasingly dire condition, albeit not new. The desert’s potential for solar and wind exploration is paramount. Modern desert dwellers in the American West and elsewhere have demonstrated their ability to survive despite their seemingly limited access to the assumed comfort of everyday life. They prosper because they understand the fragility of the desert and adapt. At this point in my life, I gravitate to these arid and desolate places. I want to investigate and do my work there.

A very last question. What does New York, as a place where you live and work, mean to you? Has your relationship with this city change over the years?

New York has always been my base. It is where my children are and where we return after explorations. We will spend less time here soon, but we will always return. As for my observation of the city, yes, of course, it has changed, and not necessarily for the better, but then again, things are cyclical, and I am optimistic that New York can produce a counterculture that pushes back on its all-devouring commercialism and its technocracy.

Everything has changed in the way we behave and what seems relevant. But, unfortunately, people have a short memory span, and all sensible revelations will be reversed, except for the Amazon Prime delivery trucks. They will stay.

Marc Anton Kyu Hungerbühler

marchungerbuhler.com