In January 2026, I had the privilege of attending Engadin Art Talks in Zuoz on behalf of Crozier Fine Arts. Marking its 15th anniversary, this year’s edition “Bonds & Gaps“ felt particularly timely. Over three winter days in the Upper Engadin, artists, thinkers, scientists, and cultural leaders gathered not to perform consensus, but to sit with complexity: how we connect, where we differ, and what responsibility culture carries in moments of fracture.
For Crozier, whose work exists largely behind the scenes of the global art ecosystem, Engadin Art Talks offers something essential: distance from transaction, and proximity to ideas. The conversations unfolding in Zuoz were a reminder that the physical movement, care, and stewardship of art are inseparable from the social and ethical contexts in which art is made, shown, and preserved.
Among the more unexpected highlights was the performance Five Friends in Five Acts by Trajal Harrell. Playful, elegant, and disarmingly humorous, the piece brought a welcome lightness to an otherwise intellectually dense programme. Yet beneath its wit and theatricality lay a sharp awareness of history, gesture, and collective presence. Watching the performance felt like a release, not an escape from the themes of Bonds & Gaps, but a reminder that joy, movement, and shared laughter are also forms of connection. It was a moment where bonds were not debated, but simply lived.
Two talks, in particular, stood out for their clarity and urgency.
Holocaust survivor and immunologist Ivan Lefkovits delivered a quietly devastating presentation titled “It is not enough to say ‘never again’.” His reflections moved beyond historical memory toward moral accountability in the present. Lefkovits spoke without rhetoric, yet with absolute precision, tracing how social exclusion escalates, not abstractly, but predictably. In a cultural moment saturated with noise, his contribution was a reminder that listening is not passive; it is an ethical act.
Engadin Art Talks 2026, Photographer: Mayk Wendt
Equally powerful was the conversation between writer and political thinker Ece Temelkuran and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. Temelkuran spoke about belonging in a fractured world with rare honesty, naming how fear, nationalism, and manufactured divisions hollow out democratic and cultural life. Her insistence that solidarity is not sentimental, but practiced, difficult, and deliberate, resonated deeply. It was a call to reject neutrality where values are at stake.
Across the programme, from architecture and neuroscience to performance and curatorial practice, Bonds & Gaps resisted easy resolutions. Instead, it framed gaps not only as problems to be closed, but as spaces that demand attention, care, and responsibility. This framing feels especially relevant to Crozier’s role in the art world: working across borders, institutions, private collections, and public trust, often precisely where systems meet and strain.
Engadin Art Talks reaffirmed why it matters for companies like Crozier to be present in these conversations. Not as sponsors of culture, but as participants in its ecosystem. The future of the art world will not be shaped solely by markets or technologies, but by the values we choose to uphold in moments of uncertainty.
Leaving Zuoz, one thing was clear: building bonds requires effort, and acknowledging gaps requires courage. Both are necessary and neither can be outsourced.
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Xenia Weiss
Head of Global Strategy & Business Development Switzerland
E-mail: xenia.weiss@crozier.ch
D: +41 43 488 99 84
M: +41 76 582 13 05
