Andi Schmied: Asset Town
Opening: 10 April 2026 (Friday) 7pm
Opening remarks by artist Miklós Erhardt
On view: 11/04 – 14/06/2026
Free
Currently, the wealthiest 0.1% of society owns more than 20% of global wealth. The total assets of ultra-high-net-worth individuals exceed the combined annual GDP of the USA and China. On average, members of this group currently own five premium properties worldwide, which primarily serve as instruments for wealth preservation and speculation.
Andi Schmied’s solo exhibition at Trafó Gallery examines newly emerging architectural typologies whose primary purpose is to preserve, conceal, and multiply the wealth of the world’s wealthiest individuals. These include the supertall skyscrapers of Manhattan, where penthouse apartments built with the most exclusive architectural materials often change ownership without ever being lived in; the largely uninhabited artificial islands of Dubai, constructed primarily for economic speculation and spectacle; and the so-called “iceberg houses” of London—luxury properties with multi-level underground extensions.
The exhibition is preceded by years of extensive research, during which the artist developed an alterego of a Hungarian billionaire apartment buyer. This persona granted her visits to various luxury properties in Manhattan and Dubai. This method allowed her to access properties normally accessible only to the world’s wealthiest and to speak with the real estate agents.
These environments—sometimes referred to as “necrotecture” or “zombie urbanism”—lack almost all forms of human presence and social connection. Ecological, social, and economic damage is hardly considered a factor. Architecture ceases to serve habitation and instead becomes a tool for preserving or increasing wealth, thereby giving physical form to abstract financial systems along with the anomalies of their underlying economic and legal structures.
Andi Schmied (b. 1986, Budapest) graduated in urbanism from the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL, London) and is currently a doctoral candidate at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Her work explores urban anomalies—places that, for various reasons, do not follow conventional urban logic yet remain part of the cityscape. These may include spaces that diverge from their originally intended function, utopian architectures, or even spaces of privilege.
Drawing on her background in architecture and industrial design, she creates site-specific installations for her exhibitions often accompanied by artist books. Her most recent book, Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan (VI PER Gallery, Prague, 2021), won first prize in the art category of the “Most Beautiful Czech Books” competition. The research underlying this exhibition was conducted in part within the framework of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York.
Supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Káli Kövek
