Biographies
FACULTY
Matthias Bildstein (AT)
is an visual artist based in Vienna. Since 2003 he runs Bildstein | Glatz with Philippe Glatz. The Artist Duo is known for spectacular Installations and Sculptures in public and institutional spaces. Their shows include classic medias like painting and plastic as well as experimental approaches with events, architecture and design. Together with Matthias Krinzinger they run the off space PFERD in Vienna. Matthias Bildstein studied Intermedia at the FH Vorarlberg, video and video installation at the academy of fine arts vienna and sculpture at the university of Applied Arts Vienna.
www.bildsteinglatz.com
www.pferd.rocks
Les Frères Chapuisat (CH)
Gregory und Cyril Chapuisat, Künstlerduo.
„We both received an artistic education abroad for a number of years before ending up in Geneva in 2001, where our contrasting experiences led us to develop an interest in spatial studies. Our constructions transform space, turning interior and exterior boundaries inside out and toying with the perception of a subjective reality. They demand visitors’ active participation, putting them into the position of being an explorer. These environments break down visual and intellectual habits, testing the explorers and obliging them to trust in their senses. Often compared to cocoons or burrows, these installations harbour striking powers. They provoke ambiguous emotional reactions in visitors, like dreams which mingle curiosity, surprise and discomfort.“
www.chapuisat.com
(La résidence secondaire, 2012, Les Frères Chapuisat, R-Art, Vercorin, Photo: Robert Hofer)
Sally De Kunst (CH/BE)
Sally De Kunst likes to bring people together and create communities of practice around artistic research and collaboration. After a BA in Graphic Design at St. Lukas in Brussels, a BA in Art History at Ghent University and an MA in Theatre Studies at the Universities of Glasgow and Ghent, Sally De Kunst worked as a critic for the newspaper De Morgen (BE). She was the dance & performance programmer at STUK arts centre in Leuven (BE) and has been the director of the Festival Belluard Bollwerk International (CH). From 2014 till 2019 she was the director of Arc artist residency in Romainmôtier (CH). In 2019 she published This Book is Yours – Recipes for artistic collaboration.
www.sallydekunst.com
Fragmentin (CH)
Fragmentin is an artist collective based in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 2014 and composed by three ECAL (Lausanne University of Art and Design) alumni: Laura Perrenoud (*1991, Lausanne), David Colombini (*1989, Lausanne) and Marc Dubois (*1985, Basel).
At the crossroads of art and engineering, Fragmentin’s work questions the impact of the digital on everyday life by investigating these technologies disposition towards control and opacity. Through installation, interaction and performance, the studio’s artworks demystify complex systems and reveal the tension between technology and climate change. Fragmentin’s pieces have been exhibited internationally and have been acquired by collection of institutions such as HeK in Basel or the Art Foundation Pax. Since 2017, they also have been nominated to several art prizes such as the Pax Art Award (2018) or the “Prix du Rayonnement de la Fondation Vaudoise pour la Culture”(2019).
www.fragment.in
Gabriela Gerber / Lukas Bardill (CH)
Gabriela Gerber studied fine art at the University of Art and Design in Zurich and Lukas Bardill studied art and media design at the F + F School in Zurich and at the University of Bern. Since 1997 they have worked as an artist duo. They live in the pre-Alps of the Prättigau. Beside classical institutional exhibitions they realized projects in different secular environment such as unused stables, military combat installations or abandoned tunnels. Their artwork recived several prizes: Swiss art award (2004), Manor Kunstpreis (2006), Culture Prize of the Anny Casty-Sprecher Foundation (2017), the Jury Prize Biennale Weiertal, Winterthur (2017). And most recent they are winners of the SAC (Swiss Alpin Club) Art Prize (2020). The Gallery Luciano Fasciati Chur represents the artists since 2005.
www.bardillgerber.ch
Hanna Hölling (UK)
Hanna B. Hölling teaches in the Department of History of Art, University College London, where she convenes the program History of Art, Materials and Technology. She is also Research Professor, Materiality in Art and Culture, at the University of the Arts Bern. Her books include Paik’s Virtual Archive: Time, Change and Materiality on Media Art (University of California Press, 2017), Revisions – Zen for Film (Bard, 2015), an anthology The Explicit Material: Inquiries on the Intersection of Curatorial and Conservation Cultures (Brill 2019, with F. Bewer and K. Ammann), and the upcoming anthology Object—Event—Performance (New York: Bard Graduate Center). With Johannes M. Hedinger, she is series editor and a co-editor of the first issue of Landscape. She is Head of Theory at ILEA and an Alps Art Academy core faculty member since 2016.
www.hannahoelling.com
Richard Saxton (USA)
Richard Saxton is a visual artist and founder of M12 STUDIO, a collaborative research-based group whose work focuses primarily on rural knowledge and landscape. Saxton’s work is conceived through an interdisciplinary cultural framework, and has been described as contemporary vernacular, non-heroic, and an art infused with rural experience without subscribing to any one genre or culture. M12 STUDIO operates as an interdisciplinary collective creating and supporting new modes of art making in rural and remote areas. The studio focuses on initiatives that explore the value of often under-represented rural communities and their surrounding landscapes. Saxton is the co-editor of The Center Pivot Library (Jap Sam Books and Last Chance Press, 2018); A Decade of Country Hits: Art on the Rural Frontier (Jap Sam Books 2014) and as a creative practitioner works regionally and internationally.
Saxton and M12 are the recipients of numerous awards including those from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Gates Family Foundation.
www.richardsaxton.org
Ella Tetrault (CAN)
is a Nova-Scotian born artist that lives between Toronto and Berlin. She holds an MFA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies from the Bauhaus University (2011-2013) and a BA in International Development from the University of Toronto (2003-2008). She is co-founder and co-curator of the Fuller Terrace Lecture Series and founder of Miracle Baby Gallery in Oakwood Village, Toronto. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Visual Art at York University where she focusses on human-animal relationships from a post-humanist perspective. She also works as a guest lecturer at the University of Cologne at the Institute for Art and Art Theory alongside Stefanie Busch. Tetrault has exhibited and performed in Canada, the United States, Poland, Greece, The UK, Mexico and Germany.
www.fullerlectures.com
Lucie Tuma (CH)
Lucie Tuma was born in Zurich and studied Dance, Choreography and Theater in Prague, Montpellier and Giessen. She works through material-based processes, poetics and critical fabulation. Her productions encompass dance performances, concert situations, books, geomanthic walks, music albums and time-based sculptures. Her feminist alter ego Æmber Tardis started manifesting in 2017.
Since 2012, she has has been involved as a researcher inside and outside of institutions, teaching theory and practice within the field of Performing Arts. In 2014, she has been awarded the annual prize for choreography and performance by the City of Zurich. From 2015-2017, she was Young Associated Artist for Tanzhaus Zürich, a program supported by Pro Helvetia. In summer 2020 she becomes part of the curatorial team of Shedhalle Zürich. Her works have been presented at festivals and at live art venues such as Gessnerallee Zurich, Tanzhaus Zurich, Gâre du Nord Basel, ADC Geneva (Swiss Dance Days 2017), Usine Geneva, Südpol Lucerne, Brut Vienna, Sophiensaele Berlin, MDT Stockholm, Kampnagel Hamburg, Mousonturm Frankfurt, BoraBora Århus, Dansehallerne Copenhagen, Inkonst Malmö, ACC Gwanju (KOR), Zarya Center for Contemporary Art Wladiwostok (RUS).
https://vimeo.com/user16825874
TEAM
Johannes M. Hedinger (CH) Director, Head of Program
Johannes M. Hedinger is a curator, artist, art historian, researcher and lecturer. He studied art at the University of the Arts in Zurich and at UCLA Los Angeles as well as studying art history, cultural studies, film studies and German studies at the University of Zurich and at the Humboldt University Berlin. Hedinger’s Postgraduate studies were conducted at the UDK Berlin and at the University of Lausanne. Hedinger is a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts and at the University of Cologne. In 1997, together with Marcus Gossolt, he founded the artist duo Com & Com, whose projects have been shown in over 150 exhibitions and 9 Biennials (incl. Venice). He is the founder and since 2016 the director of the Alps Art Academy summer school and the Biennial Art Safiental, and since 2019 the director of ILEA (Institute for Land and Environmental Art).
www.johanneshedinger.com
www.ilea.art
Jolanda Rechsteiner (CH) Managing Director
qualified tourism specialist HF, has many years of professional experience in tourism and marketing. Since June 2012 she has been the managing director of Safiental Tourism and responsible for tourism development, with a focus on natural and cultural tourism in the Safiental. She is the operational manager of the Alps Art Academy and has coordinated the production of the installations of the Biennale Art Safiental since 2016.
www.safiental.ch/tourismus
Mirja Busch (D) Associate Head of Program & coordination
is a visual artist and artistic researcher. She studied Fine Arts at the University of Fine Arts, Braunschweig (until 2006) and Art Theory and Art Practice in the Graduate programme at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile (2008-2009). Three-month research visit to the archive of the former CAVS at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2013) on Land and Environmental Art. Her artistic practice focuses on the materialization of the immaterial and the rendering of background phenomena, such as distilling theory or archiving puddles. She is Associate Head of Programs and Coordinator at the Alps Art Academy, Art Safiental and ILEA.
www.mirjabusch.com