The World Ethic Forum brings together thinkers from across cultures to renew our relationship with all living things. Commissioned to design the space for their bi-annual public gathering in Pontresina 2024, we created a series of installations that reflect and embody this spirit.

Aliveness here was not merely decorative—it was present in every cushion, artwork, and immersive installation.

Above: Naturally dyed fabrics, each connecting the space to walnuts by artist Verena Nussbaumer. The walnut is the eponymous ingredient of the famous Bünder or Engadin nut cake from the area of Pontresina. The pastry is an example of how the new and foreign can become one’s own over time.  After emigrating to Italy and France, Engadine pastry chefs refined the recipe and made it famous. However, the walnut does not grow in Pontresina or in the Engadine. The basic ingredient of this tradition thus had to be imported.

Photo, Right above: Detail of a textile weaving by Sonja Schenkel.

Photo left: «Cantos al Agua y otros Seres» is a celebration of the union between traditional knowledge, the mountains, the rivers, oceans, seas, animals, the invisible beings, the place, and its people. It  is  an act mediated by love, integrating the symbolic, sonorous, and expansive power of the Kuisi. The Kuisi originates from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, where is it played by local indigenous people such as the Kogi, the Ikke and others in dialogue and to heal places of the natural world. The artist Jehisson Santacruz has been integrating this instrument and its spirituality into his art and life practice for many years.

Photo: Women of the Weaving Project, Creative Hands – a platform for displaced women, contributed with their weavings. Based in Greece, Creative Hands focuses on giving all women, whether Greek or from any other country, who are living in refugee camps, the opportunity to work and create a livelihood.

Photo: Coffee Carpet. The carpet is made from upcycled coffee bean bags from all over the world symbolizing that exchange of goods is also related to exchange of ideas in either direction, shaping a fabric on which here and there appear within an equal structure. Artist: Sonja Schenkel in collaboration with Creative Hands, Greece