Image: William S. Marriott, Pearson Magazine, 1910. Harry Price Library of Magical Literature. © Senate House Library, University of London
mudac, the cantonal museum of design and contemporary applied arts in Lausanne, opens Hocus Pocus. Le design de l’invisible (Hocus Pocus: Designing the Invisible) on 6 November 2026. The exhibition runs until 11 April 2027 and launches a season the museum devotes to the relationship between magic and design.
Covering the period from the late 19th century to the present day, Hocus Pocus looks at how the two fields have overlapped. It approaches the subject through the figures of great illusionists, technical inventions, popular arts and the imagery of spiritualism.
The museum’s argument is that designers, much like magicians, draw on innovation, staging and illusion to produce fascination and wonder. In mudac’s account, the exhibition brings out a shared history built on ingenuity and on the art of repurposing.
Hocus Pocus is curated by Alexandra Midal of Double A, with scientific collaboration from Luisa Ferreira of mudac. Scenography for the season is by Adrien Rovero Studio of Double A, and the graphic design is by Marietta Eugster.
Running alongside it, a second exhibition, Rencontrologie. Design pour des mondes magiques, curated by Scott Longefellow, turns to present-day magical practices, treating them as technologies of relationship and combining immersive installations, ritual objects and speculative works with pieces from mudac’s collection to explore other ways of relating to living beings, non-humans and invisible worlds.
The season is accompanied by a programme of related events, including a stop-motion workshop on magic films on 15 November, a magic show by Marco Smacchia on 7 January and a curator-led tour of the two exhibitions on 4 February.
