New home for Nemo's dress

After Queeramnesty unexpectedly came into possession of the costume from Nemo's 2025 Eurovision performance in Basel at the end of last year, an ideal new home has now been found for the magnificent piece: The Swiss National Museum has added it to its collection. However, it is still unclear when it will be publicly displayed for the first time.

Text: Ralf Kaminski

“It was a stroke of luck for us that Queeramnesty contacted us,” says Joya Indermühle, the curator responsible for fashion at the Swiss National Museum , which, in addition to the National Museum Zurich, also includes the Forum of Swiss History Schwyz and the Château de Prangins. “Nemo’s costume is an exemplary object relating to the themes of fashion and contemporary witnesses. We find Nemo as a person and the social debate that arose around his Eurovision Song Contest victory in Malmö in 2024 particularly fascinating. The costume reflects this debate.”

Her curatorial colleague Jose Cáceres, responsible for contemporary witnesses, adds: “Nemo represents a piece of Swiss contemporary history – the ESC success suddenly brought a subculture into the national spotlight and sparked a debate about queer identity politics. This is naturally of great interest to the National Museum.”

Joya Indermühle und Jose Cáceres sind Kurator*innen des Schweizerischen Nationalmuseums (Bilder: Schweizerischen Nationalmuseum)

But how exactly did Queeramnesty come to own Nemo's Eurovision costume? It was a complete surprise to us, too. In November 2025, Nemo's dress from his Basel Eurovision performance was auctioned off for charity on the online platform Ricardo – and the proceeds of around 3,500 Swiss francs went to Queeramnesty at the non-binary star's request. However, the winning bidder ultimately declined the outfit and gave it to us to use as we pleased. So the magnificent piece hung in the wardrobe of our co-group coordinator, Marc Schmid, in Bern for several weeks. "If someone had predicted this to me last summer, I probably would have considered it highly unlikely," he says with a laugh. And the question arose: What to do with it now?

What mattered was Nemo, not so much the outfit.

The idea soon arose that, given Nemo's celebrity, a museum might be interested – and the very first inquiry proved successful. "There are various criteria that make objects interesting for the Swiss National Museum," says Joya Indermühle. "Historical relevance and craftsmanship are among them, and this costume is also incredibly stylish and handmade. But it's by a British designer (Beau Tiger Ray) and wouldn't have fit the collection concept on its own. So, the decisive factor here was clearly Nemo as a person."

Jose Cáceres emphasizes the national relevance: “Contemporary history is never finished. There are always moments that spark debate, that bring about change. And from this perspective, Nemo’s outfit fits wonderfully into our collection. As a curator, I immediately ask myself what else I can exhibit alongside this object, what stories and messages I can convey with it.”

Nemo im Kostüm vor dem Auftritt am ESC in Basel 2025 (Bild: Eurovision)

Furthermore, the dress represents a pop-cultural first for the Swiss National Museum. While other articles of clothing belonging to prominent figures from that era already exist, the institution has so far focused primarily on political figures. An exhibition at the National Museum in Zurich did, however, feature the shoes Nemo wore when he won the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, though these were on loan from Swiss television SRF. "When Queeramnesty approached me, I immediately wondered whether we had already worked with the queer community and what more we could potentially do," says Cáceres. "And: To what extent is queer history also Swiss history? How does the movement shape Switzerland's self-image? I see considerable potential here."

Part of the collection with hundreds of thousands of objects

Meanwhile, staff from the National Museum have collected the costume from Marc Schmid in Bern and brought it to the collection center in Affoltern am Albis. "The first thing it does is go into the nitrogen chamber to ensure it's free of pests," explains Indermühle. "Then it's entered into the database, measured, and photographed. Finally, it's professionally stored, lying flat in a padded costume box." The collection center is located on the grounds of a former armory—it's a vast complex housing hundreds of thousands of objects. "A treasure trove," says Indermühle. And right in the middle of it all is Nemo's costume, waiting to be displayed in an exhibition. When that will be is still uncertain.

The vast collection also contains other objects relevant to the queer history of Switzerland. These include AIDS quilts, old magazines, a banner related to the political struggle for marriage equality, and items belonging to Zurich activist Röbi Rapp (1930-2018), whose life story, along with that of his long-time partner Ernst Ostertag, was told in the film "The Circle" (2014).

Traces of queer life realities

While the Swiss National Museum in Zurich has never before hosted a purely queer exhibition, it has incorporated queer aspects into larger exhibitions on several occasions – and the next one is already in the works: On July 3rd, a video installation about sex work , which also incorporates queer experiences, will open. "So, there are already certain traces of queer realities in the museum," says Cáceres, "but we would like to expand on that. Because it's often not so easy to access relevant objects, we want to collaborate more closely with the community and actively reach out to them in the future."