The much-anticipated relaunch of the summit, originally founded by Anneliek Sijbrandij in 2017, will address the theme of ‘Quarter Life Crisis: Art in a World on the Brink’. “Taking its title from the pop-psychology name for the anxiety of young adulthood coined in the early 2000s, this edition of the Verbier Art Summit will bring together artists and thinkers from across geographies and generations to ask questions about the geopolitical, digital, human and institutional dimensions of the art world in the twenty-first century, to which there are no easy answers”, states Philip Tinari, director of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in China and the 2025 partnering museum director of the Verbier Art Summit.

In his curatorial statement, Tinari writes that the 2025 Summit edition looks to situate the precarious state of the art world a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, at the intersection of several related vectors: the long slide from unipolar to multipolar geopolitics, an ongoing digital acceleration, and the articulation and intersection of complex identities and subjectivities: “After an extended pandemic hiatus, and in light of myriad reckonings, upheavals, and conflicts, the Verbier Art Summit returns to ask: How might we understand our collective quarter life crisis? And who might counsel us through this global moment of anxiety?”

Sitting at the heart of the summit, the Talks programme features 20-minute presentations from leading voices in contemporary art, philosophy and technology, creating a global platform for critical artistic and intellectual discourse. Extending beyond the talks, the Cultural programme activates locations across Verbier with exhibitions, film, and interactive art experiences. This year’s programme will include Illuminations of Verbier, an exhibition showcasing nine local artists.

To inspire people globally, the summit will be livestreamed via a virtual platform, with key conversations being documented in a publication series following the conclusion of the summit.