Image: Teo Petruzzi, Der Absender, 2026, still from the video work. Exhibition poster courtesy of Benzeholz – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Meggen
Teo Petruzzi opens the autumn programme at Benzeholz – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Meggen with the solo exhibition ‘Return to Sender’, which runs from 21 August to 11 October 2026. The vernissage is held on Thursday 20 August, 6–9pm.
The exhibition looks at narratives around Switzerland, its prosperity and its place in the world at a moment of growing instability, asking how the Global North responds to the consequences of economic and political arrangements whose burdens have long been displaced to other parts of the world. Petruzzi enters the subject through an everyday point of contact with globalisation: goods produced in the Global South, ordered online and delivered to the door.
At the centre of the show is a new video work made in the manner of a ‘Schweiz aktuell’ television report, following a fictional postal worker who delivers parcels by remote-controlled drone; Kunsthoch Luzern describes the same protagonist as a drone pilot in the near future. Petruzzi combines installation and film, and the gallery presents the drone as a mirror of capitalist mechanisms – the neoliberal promise of automation and rationalisation, raising questions of distance, responsibility and estrangement, and linking civilian logistics to military reality. Kunsthoch Luzern notes that such drones can deliver parcels or pizza boxes but can equally be deployed as lethal machines.
Petruzzi (b. 1994 in Altdorf, Canton Uri) lives and works in Lucerne and Bern, and received the Kunstgesellschaft Luzern exhibition prize ‘Solo’ in 2024.
On Saturday 29 August 2026 the exhibition joins Kunsthoch Luzern, the joint action day of cultural institutions in and around Lucerne. Benzeholz is a stop on ‘Rundgang 1: In die nahe Umgebung mit dem Kleinbus (Nord)’, which starts at 11am at the Kunsthoch information stand on Löwenplatz in Lucerne, travels along Lake Lucerne to the Hans Erni Museum – where the special exhibition ‘Phantastische Flugobjekte’ pairs flying-machine drawings by Hans ‘Kü’ Küchler (1929–2001) with contemporary work – and then to Meggen. The tour is led by the Bern-based art historian, writer and curator Rebecka Domig, is free and lasts about 120 minutes; places are limited and registration is binding. Benzeholz takes part in the day but does not co-organise the exhibition.
The same newsletter carries an open call: Benzeholz will join the REGIONAL LUZERN format for the first time in 2027, and professional artists with a connection to the Canton of Lucerne can apply for the group exhibition ‘REGIONAL LUZERN 27’ until Wednesday 16 September 2026, alongside partner venues Entlebucherhaus MuseumKultur, Kunstraum Hochdorf, Museum Sankturbanhof Sursee and Rathaus Willisau.
Benzeholz – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst is at Benzeholzplatz 2, 6045 Meggen, open Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 6pm, reachable by bus 24 to Meggen Kapelle or by train to Meggen Zentrum. ‘Return to Sender’ remains on view through 11 October 2026.
