The Library at MAF Presents Pretenzione Intenzione: A Conversation with Una Szeemann and Douglas Fogle

• February 28, 2026 | 4pm

On the occasion of the exhibition Pretenzione Intention: Objects of Beauty and Bewilderment from the Archive of Harald Szeemann, join us at MAF for a discussion with artist Una Szeemann about the secret lives of objects and the poetic impulses behind personal collections. Szeemann will discuss the power of imagination and storytelling that animates the act of collecting in the context of her exhibition of mysterious objects and fragments accumulated by the late legendary Swiss curator Harald Szeemann.

Szeemann will be in conversation with independent curator and writer Douglas Fogle, curator of BRUCE CONNER / RECORDING ANGEL, at Marciano Art Foundation.

Una Szeemann is an artist based in Zurich, Switzerland, whose installations provide meditations on the subtle material manifestations of invisible phenomena through an approach that explores parallel thinking and unconscious processes. Szeemann has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions at institutions such as MAN Museo Nuoro, Kunsthaus Zurich, Kunsthalle Winterthur, MASI Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana Lugano, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Belvedere 21 Vienna, Nam June Paik Art Center Seoul, Kunstmuseum Lucerne, Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona, Contemporary Art Center Vilnius and Kunsthalle Vienna. She has also exhibited her work in a wide range of international group exhibitions including Manifesta 11, the 5th Busan Biennale in Korea, 3rd Contour Biennale in Belgium, 9th Lyon Biennale and 52nd Venice Biennale. Also a lecturer, she regularly presents in the Fine Arts Department of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). She is a member of the Swiss Federal Art Commission and board member of Cabaret Voltaire (ZH).

Douglas Fogle is an independent curator and writer based in Los Angeles. His most recent exhibitions include Marlene Dumas: Cycladic Blues at the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece (2025); Friends in a Field: Conversations with Raoul De Keyser at Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium; and Thomas Demand: The Stutter of History at UCCA Edge, Shanghai (2022), Jeu de Paume, Paris, (2023), Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2023), Museum of Fine Arts Houston (2024), and Taipei Museum of Fine Arts (2025). Fogle has held curatorial positions at a number of contemporary art institutions including Anderson Ranch Art Center in Aspen, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. As a writer, he has contributed essays to numerous artist monographs and recently co-authored Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (idajoon/MACK, 2025) and Making Strange: The Chara Schreyer Collection (Del Monico Books/DAP, 2023).