Shedhalle Zürich, ProtoZones 2020–2025

Trainer Grotesk is the typeface used for the identity of Shedhalle, an art space established in the 1980s on the premises of Rote Fabrik in Zurich. From 2020 to 2025, Shedhalle uses a new exhibition format for process-based art, dubbed ProtoZones.

From Studio Yukiko:

Sometimes, the process is more important than the product. How we make is political, and how we think has the power to shape new forms of collective action. Overlooking the city of Zurich from its lakeside site, Shedhalle has carved out a new space for celebrating process rather than product, becoming one of the most interesting exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Switzerland. Its new curatorial team, led by Thea Reifler and Philipp Bergmann, are putting process-based art on the map — proving that the activity of making art itself plays a vital role in creating actual communities.

Shedhalle’s programming actively seeks to break down the borders between art and science, institution and audience, research and practice, largely through its “ProtoZone” experimental exhibition format. In this setting, cross-genre collaboration and ideas of openness are given space.

Taking inspiration from microbiology, where systems and structures rely on one another and grow from each other, as well as eco-feminism and science fiction, Shedhalle’s identity understands that everything’s connected. Follow its annotations and diagrammatic language to delve deeper into the institution’s cross-disciplinary programming. Maybe you’ll even learn something about Shedhalle’s own processes along the way.

Each key visual reflects the process of exhibition making, Drawing connections between artists and artworks or layering visual concepts to reflect the diverse research behind each protozone show