Haus Gawaling is a residency and gathering place in Mathon, a small mountain village in Graubünden. Originally established by the Gampatshang sisters as a place for the Tibetan community to gather, the house gradually opened towards artists and cultural practitioners, carrying its history of hospitality into a new context. Rather than focusing on artistic production alone, Haus Gawaling developed around shared time, collective care and the exchange of knowledge.

The exchange with Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen developed in the context of their research for NEXPO and a shared interest in new forms of gathering beyond established cultural centres. As part of NEXPO’s Site Visit series, Haus Gawaling later hosted a day in Mathon bringing together artists, curators and architects for a walk through the landscape, a Tibetan gathering, an exhibition by Maya Hottarek and a concert by Mykki Blanco. The programme considered how cultural networks might move between urban and rural contexts, and how a house could operate as both a private space and a site of public exchange.

This ongoing dialogue also led to the Summer Benefit Programme at Luma Westbau. The presentation brought Haus Gawaling from the mountains into an institutional context through works by Mathilde Agius and Maximage Société Suisse. Agius’s photographic practice, which often moves between documentation, fashion and the construction of social identity, was shown alongside a series of graphic works and screenprints by Maximage Société Suisse.

Conceived as a benefit for Haus Gawaling, the exhibition connected artistic production with the practical support of the residency. Rather than presenting the house as a fixed institution, it made visible the network of artists, designers and collaborators that had begun to form around it — approaching hospitality, community building and collaboration as part of the curatorial practice itself.