It was opened in October 1996 and is financed by the pharmaceutical company F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG. The permanent exhibition shows works by the artist ranging from the beginnings in the 1950s with motor-driven reliefs, the drawing machines and the scrap metal assemblages of the sixties, to the black-painted machine structures, large sculptures and the pandemonic cycles of his final phase.

Special exhibitions, organized on a regular basis and along Tinguely’s ideas, show a wide range of artists and subjects.

The building was planned and constructed by the Swiss architect Mario Botta, and has varied spatial structures whose dimensions and character enter into a dialogue with the various groups of works.