mudac’s Rencontrologie explores design and contemporary magical practices in Lausanne

mudac, the cantonal museum of design and contemporary applied arts in Lausanne, opens Rencontrologie. Design pour des mondes magiques (Encounterology: Design for Magical Worlds) on 6 November 2026. The exhibition runs until 11 April 2027 as one half of a season the museum devotes to the relationship between magic and design.

Rencontrologie looks at present-day magical practices and treats them as technologies of relationship. The exhibition combines immersive installations, ritual objects and speculative works with a selection of pieces from mudac’s own collection. According to the museum, it explores other ways of connecting with living beings, non-humans and invisible worlds, and proposes new forms of dialogue between design, the invisible and ecology. In mudac’s framing, design acts here as a go-between linking several realities, and the show asks visitors to imagine different ways of being in the world.

The exhibition is curated by Scott Longefellow of mudac.

Its companion, Hocus Pocus. Le design de l’invisible (Hocus Pocus: Designing the Invisible), takes a historical approach. Covering the late 19th century to the present, it traces the links between magic and design through great illusionists, technical inventions, popular arts and the imagery of spiritualism. The museum argues that designers, like magicians, rely on innovation, staging and illusion to create fascination and wonder, and that the two fields share a history of ingenuity and subversion. 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, with graphic design by Marietta Eugster.

A programme of related events accompanies the two exhibitions, 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 season on 4 February.