Participatory Public Art · Spatial Imagination · Est. 2019
Studio
Portmann
We develop works, formats and consultancy services that invite communities to collectively reimagine and prototype alternative futures in real space — works that only exist through collective presence.
Making utopia
visible, temporary
and collective.
- Melt Dome 2028 — Lucerne · In production
- Hägendorf 2100 — Opens 21 August, Hägendorf
- Leuchtzug ZUKUNFT — Concluded, Bern
- Holy Pet Pyramid · Aldgate Edition — Opens 22 August, London
- Spatial Futures Lab — Open call for cities
Cultural institutions · Municipalities · Festival organisers
Commissioned public art, participatory festivals, immersive formats and light processions. Works that only exist through collective presence in real space — enacted, not observed.
Selected worksCities · Developers · Urban planners · Cultural institutions
Cultural strategy, creative placemaking, spatial futures research and facilitation. We help institutions think ambitiously about culture's role in the city and the long term.
Work with usCommunities · Schools · Partner artists · Researchers
Participatory workshops, co-creation processes, educational programmes and research partnerships. We build conditions for collective imagination to flourish.
Partner with usStudio · Operating principles
Four conditions for enacted utopia.
Enacted
The work requires physical presence to exist. No observers — only participants. Utopia must be built together, in real space.
Structured
Legal, financial and organisational architecture built for longevity. Art practice and production held in a coherent multi-entity ecosystem.
Transferable
Formats documented to travel, license and evolve. What is invented in Olten can run in London, Santander or beyond.
Rooted
Practice grounded in real communities, real budgets and real space — not simulation. Proof of concept before theory.
A manifesto, briefly
Utopia is not a place —
it is a temporary reality
of new relations and place
that for a moment invites people
into collectively created place.
We build the conditions, not the conclusions. Every format is an open frame the public completes.
We measure success in repeat collaborators, returning audiences and the formats other cities licence.
We hold the work in a multi-entity ecosystem so practice can outlive any single funding round.
Practice
Work that only exists through collective, physical participation.
Studio Portmann operates at the intersection of public art, collective festivals and spatial futures. Founded by Yannick Portmann, the studio develops relational utopian landscapes — temporary spatial formations that emerge through embodied participation and momentarily suspend dominant modes of spatial production.
From large-scale participatory festivals to speculative futures research, each project shares a single commitment: that the conditions for collective imagination must be built — physically, together, in real space.
Selected works · 2023 — 2026
Projects in motion.
Create · Festival
Melt Dome
Participatory social laboratory in public space. CHF 70k+, 50 collaborators, 14 play days. First edition Olten 2024 — second edition Lucerne 2028.
Create · Light
Leuchtzug
Light procession series exploring collective movement and illuminated public space. MITTE and ZUKUNFT both concluded — third edition in scoping.
Create · Immersive
Holy Pet Pyramid
Nomadic immersive experience format. Aldgate Edition opens 22 August at the Bellfoundry, London. Olten edition follows.
Collaborate · Community
Hägendorf 2100
Funded speculative futures project. Large-scale mural co-created with 250 primary school pupils through a two-week workshop process. Opens 21 August in Hägendorf.
Partners & support
Commissioning bodies, cultural funds and city partners we've worked with since 2019.
- City ofOlten
- CantonSolothurn
- FoundationPro Helvetia
- City ofLucerne
- CouncilTower Hamlets
- FestivalMira (CH)
- FundStiftung Mercator
- PartnerAtelier Satsang