Susanne Bartsch Makes Emotional Return to Switzerland for Transformation! Exhibition (Exclusive)

In New York City, Susanne Bartsch is nightlife royalty: a maverick style icon beloved for bringing people together at her legendary parties. At the height of her transformational powers, Bartsch can seem almost otherworldly because of her outsized presence coupled with her outlandish fashion sense. But at the opening Transformation!, her wild new exhibition at Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, Switzerland, Bartsch, who was born in the country, felt down to earth despite her metallic blue ensemble and one-of-a-kind wig.

“Before I say anything else, has anyone got any toilet paper because I’m going to cry,” Bartsch said to a crowd of admirers on June 19 after they got a first peek at her stunning career retrospective, showcasing over 35 of her most iconic looks. Growing visibly emotional, Bartsch took in the audience and smiled through her tears. “I’m very moved,” she continued. “It’s really funny to see my work being intellectualized. It’s kind of incredible.”

As the museum describes, Transformation! “takes the audience on a club night and shows how transformative the work on outfit, appearance, and space can be.” Its opening, which was followed by an exclusive after party at the Klaus Club in Zurich’s popular Langstrasse nightlife district, happened to coincide with the kickoff to Zurich Pride Festival 2025, a multi-day LGBTQ+ event that attracts thousands to the Swiss city every year. The festivities concluded on Saturday, June 21 with a parade through the center of Zurich and a free outdoor music festival that featured popular Eurovision acts, like Spain’s Melody and Maltese star Miriana Conte.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, conducted while Bartsch was putting the finishing touches to her show, the event producer and artist opens up about what the exhibition means to her, her thoughts on how N.Y.C. nightlife has evolved over the decades, her meaningful friendship with RuPaul and so much more.

PEOPLE: What has this experience been like, going through your archives for this exhibit? Is it emotional revisiting your legacy?

SUSANNE BARTSCH: I mean, the hardest thing was what not to include because there’s so many looks. It’s like, “What do I include? What do I not include?” It’s not so much when you get the looks together to decide to put in the exhibition, it’s when you actually see them on the mannequin. That’s emotional because you suddenly see this thing that was hanging in the closet, or that was in a box somewhere, or underneath my Chinese bed. All of the sudden, it feels like you remember everything that happened within this outfit. It becomes alive.

Is it especially meaningful to have this exhibit launch in your home country? Has returning to your roots given you a different perspective on all you’ve achieved?

Yeah, it really has. It’s like coming home, a little. I’ve been doing this all my life. I left Switzerland to find myself, and it’s nothing to do with Switzerland — I would’ve left home wherever I lived because I knew there was more to life than what I knew, and I wanted to experience different cultures and learn and grow. So having left to become me, it’s an amazing gift to come back and be celebrated of why I left, in a way.

I’ve become what I am by leaving and experiencing and learning and finding my creativity and who I am, what I want to do, and coming back here. Being rewarded, in a way, for having left, it’s really moving. It’s a very beautiful, special thing to me.

Would you describe this show as a retrospective of your career or a current encapsulation of where you today in your creative journey?

It’s a look forwards. It’s very much about right now, this is what I’m doing. It’s not kind of like, “Oh, I wore this 10, 20 years ago.” It’s very in the moment. Some of my outfits are from the eighties, but a lot of them are also from right now. So it’s not so much, “Oh, this is… Okay, here we are. The grand finale.” If anything, “More to come.” For sure.

You were radiant as a guest judge on the current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars. Did you have fun?

Yeah, it was great. I really enjoyed. The queens were so fabulous. It was really fun and so glamorous. They made me look so good. I’m like, “Oh!” And people come up to me, say, “Oh my God, you looked so good on the Drag Race, like, lighting and everything.” RuPaul is a very dear friend to me, and that whole family that he created. He should be the next President of the United States. RuPaul. That looks so much better. 

With you as Vice President?

Oh, please, yes, I’m applying. I’m applying. And you could be the Secretary of State. Oh my gosh.

When Susanne Bartsch packs for a trip to Zurich, how many pieces of luggage does she bring? I assume you have items shipped.

We had to ship. Most of it was shipped, but I myself had two bags only. We had six bags total. But for my own stuff, it was only two bags. I mean, you know what’s really funny? I don’t really do ballgowns that much. It’s more corsets — I love corsets, I love being cinched — so the clothes are never that big. If anything, they might be fragile. I have a bronze look for this opening, and it’s pretty fragile, so you have to pack a certain way. That takes up space. But the thing that really takes up space? It’s the shoes. The shoes and the hair, funny enough. That’s more dramatic to travel with than the actual drag, the actual look.

What’s your take on the current nightlife scene in New York and how it’s evolved since you came onto the scene?  

I think it was clearly changed enormously because there is social media. People live their life on social media, on “the square.” RuPaul calls it “the square.” The phone, the TV, the computer. So you don’t have to go out anymore. We used to have to go out to meet somebody. Now you can do everything on the square, you can get food, you can shop, you don’t have to go anywhere. And it’s definitely kind of affecting nightlife a little bit.

Forget nightlife, it’s actually New York. The restaurants now close at like 10 o’clock. You go to a restaurant at 9:30, “Sorry, we’re closed.” I find that amazing. In Chelsea — I live in Chelsea — nothing’s open after 10 o’clock, that I know of. So, I think, besides nightlife, it’s just New York all together. It’s very… I don’t know, I don’t think it’s the city of 24 hours anymore.

We’re kind of losing connections, because we don’t have places to congregate. The nightclub is a dance floor experience. Nothing is better than a dance floor experience because it really puts you into the moment. That is one place that people still put the phone down, and they’re together in the groove. They move to the music, different ways of moving, but they’re all moving to the same beat. And to me, that’s almost like a spiritual experience. It’s very special. The dance floor is really the mecca for me now because that’s where creativity, fashion, and music all comes together at the same time. Moving to the same beat.

What is your secret to remaining an innovator in your field? 

To be honest, I get inspired. For me, I love what I do. I love seeing people together and having fun, flirting with each other. I feel like I’m doing something good. Giving love, giving a platform for people to feel safe, giving people the opportunity to be whatever they want to be. And that’s kind of what I’m about. When I have an event, it’s a real high for me. So, I guess I’m an addict. I want the high, so I keep going. I won’t drop that ball.