Swiss Institute was originally founded to highlight Swiss art and culture in New York; since then, the programming has become more international in scope. Do you still see fostering connections between Switzerland and New York as part of the institution's mission or is your outlook more global?
Art from Switzerland and New York will always remain a cornerstone of our programming, though as you suggest, there is an obligation for contemporary art institutions to embrace these ongoing developments of globalization. For a nationally-affiliated cultural organization to exclusively focus on the output of one or two countries simply isn’t an option today. Swiss Institute realized this early on in its history with exhibitions like Chocolate! (curated by Ingrid Schaffner and Carin Kuoni in 1995), Technosophia (curated by Annette Schindler in 1998) and Extra (curated by Marc-Olivier Wahler in 2003).

In many ways, Swiss Institute is fortunate due to the highly international ethos of Switzerland itself. The relevance of Switzerland in the contemporary art world has always been predicated on a global perspective, so our commitment to the art of Switzerland is reflected in the internationalism of our programming. Recently, we’ve troubled the idea of national affiliations through our SI OFFSITE programming, that has taken us from Belgrade to New Glarus, Wisconsin, also known as “America’s Little Switzerland.” In showing work in a global context, we’re aiming to demonstrate how the currents of international exchange aren't necessarily linear. It comes from all directions, and it’s our job to function as a nexus.

In 2014, we initiated Swiss Institute’s Annual Architecture and Design Series, which has become a vital component of the institution’s curatorial programming. Each year we invite a new curator who has demonstrated outstanding forward-thinking in the field of architecture and design to organize an exhibition that challenges existing notions of what an architecture or design exhibition can be. The first year, artist and architect Andreas Angelidakis transformed our 18 Wooster Street space into a dramatic reinterpretation of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist play The Chairs. The following year, PIN-UP editor Felix Burrichter reinvented Le Corbusier’s Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau into a chromakey, 21st century show home where visitors were recorded and displayed on screens in each room. This exhibition was the most well attended in Swiss Institute’s thirty-one-year history, and it generated lots of excitement amongst our visitors. I am proud to open our new space at 38 St. Marks Place with the third edition of the series, which is curated by Swiss curators Niels Olsen and Fredi Fischli, who will offer a new, incisive take on the readymade and model a cityscape from architectural interventions and design objects by architects and artists. Each iteration of the series allows Swiss Institute to further our commitment to experimental exhibition design and the work of today’s most compelling artists, designers and architects.

I’ve also introduced SI: Visions, an artist-led video series. The series was initially conceived of as a fantasy group exhibition, bringing together artists whose practices we admired, and giving them the opportunity to discuss their practices in unexpected contexts.

Here in New York, our curator Laura McLean-Ferris has organized a series of performances called  Lunar Intervals in which each event takes place in a different phase of the lunar cycle in a different location throughout the city. So far, we’ve been lucky enough to feature performances from Michèle Graf and Selina Grüter, Tobias Spichtig with Theresa Patzschke, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, and Aria Dean. Later in the spring we will feature Sahra Motalebi, Irena Haiduk and Madeline Hollander. Each performance is followed by the release of a 7-inch record, which has been new territory for us.

We are currently collaborating with East Village landmark Anthology Film Archives on Objects In Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, a series of screenings organized by our associate curator Alison Coplan that investigates climate change from the perspective of non-human vision. We opened with a screening of films selected by artist Andrew Norman Wilson, and follow with Donna Haraway and Fabrizio Terranova, Ursula Biemann and Julius von Bismarck and Julian Charrière. We worked last summer with Jonas Mekas on a public program for our contribution to the citywide exhibition Ugo Rondinone: I ♥  John Giorno, and that’s where this idea to collaborate was born. To have worked with such a venerable figure and institution has been nothing short of extraordinary.

For Independent, Swiss Institute will be featuring editions from the 38 St Marks Editions portfolio, with commissioned prints by a range of international artists. How does the portfolio represent or reflect SI's program in general?
The editions that Swiss Institute produces are always an extension of our programming, from Sean Raspet’s Technical Food and Technical Milk to Simon Denny’s SI x SD Legacy Selfie Stick Luxury Tech Reissue, or Christina Forrer’s special edition Swiss Army Knife. I find that artists are really excited to work on editions, as it provides them an opportunity to run with an idea that they may have been contemplating, but have not yet had the resources or time to realize, as well as an avenue to support Swiss Institute. When conceiving of an edition, we want to give the artist the opportunity to think freely and provide them the resources to experiment. With the 38 St Marks Editions, we were looking to collaborate with artists with whom we have worked, whose practices excited us, and/or reflected the vitality of the East Village. What makes this portfolio so exciting is the breadth of artists included and the diversity of their prints. To have work by New York legends like Judith Bernstein and John Giorno paired with the exquisite prints by younger artists like Urban Zellweger or Julien Nguyen is particularly thrilling.