Short for Mechanical Art Devices—MAD—, the M.A.D.Gallery started as an experiment and evolved into a network of spaces spanning Geneva, Dubai, MB&F Labs in Taipei, Singapore, Paris, Beverly Hills, and Silicon Valley. This year marks the gallery's 15th anniversary, and to celebrate, MB&F has invited several artists who helped shape its identity to create special limited edition pieces that will be unveiled throughout the year.
When MB&F opened the first M.A.D. Gallery in 2011, in Geneva’s Old Town, the concept was born less from a business plan than from necessity. Retail partners sometimes struggled to contextualize the brand's three-dimensional Horological Machines within conventional watch displays, while art galleries dismissed them as, well, watches. The solution was to build a space that existed between both worlds—a home for mechanical art that didn't belong in either.
The series opens with Frank Buchwald, one of the very first artists to join the M.A.D.Gallery project. Max Büsser originally discovered Buchwald's retro-futuristic Machine Lights online, intending to buy one for his home. A visit to the artist's Berlin workshop—an old industrial space filled with brass, steel, and sketches— changed the trajectory entirely. Büsser left, having purchased the next ten pieces for the gallery that didn't yet exist.
Fifteen years and many Machine Lights later, that partnership continues with the ML15 Helios. Limited to 15 pieces, Helios is conceived as a mechanical sun. A spherical lamp sits at its center, encircled by a luminous ring that evokes a solar corona. Two transparent blue rings frame the sphere, lending the piece an almost anthropomorphic quality — somewhere between an eye and a scientific instrument, with the unsettling suggestion that it might be observing you as much as you're observing it.
As with all of Buchwald's work, the ML15 Helios is entirely handcrafted. Even laser-cut elements are manually reworked and refined, and the process extends well into assembly: adding, removing, adjusting proportions until the object achieves the balance its creator demands. Each piece requires weeks to complete, with much of that time devoted not to construction but to the subtle refinements that distinguish craft from manufacturing.
It is a fitting way to open the anniversary year—with one of the artists who was there at the beginning, and with an object that captures what the M.A.D.Gallery has represented since 2011: a space for mechanical creations that resist easy categorisation.
The Details on the lamp are as follows: 350 mm x 440 mm x 460 mm | Weight: 9kg | Materials: Stainless steel with brass elements | Limitation: 15 pieces
Sticker Price CHF 12,000—approx USD 15,500. For more info on MB&F, click here.
