Living Room — Fokus Künstlerinnen & Künstler

Ursula Biemann

is a Swiss artist, author and video essayist. Her artistic practice is strongly research oriented and involves fieldwork in remote locations where she investigates climate change and the ecologies of oil and water. Her earlier work focused on global relations under the impact of the accelerated mobility of people, resources and information. Since 1998 Biemann’s work had been shown regularly at international exhibitions, festivals and biennials. Just to mention a few, her video installations were shown at the Liverpool Biennial (2004), Sharjah Biennial (2005, 2017), Sevilla Biennial (2006), Thessaloniki Biennial (2007, 2015), Istanbul Biennial (2007), Gwangju Biennial (2008), Maldives Pavilion at the Venice Biennial (2013), Montreal Biennial (2014), Media Artes Biennial Santiago de Chile (2017, 2019), Shanghai Biennial (2008, 2018), Taipei Biennial (2018). Biemann is appointed Doctor honoris causa in Humanities by the Swedish University Umea (2008). She has received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2018 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics.

Hou Hanru

is an international art curator and critic based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He is Artistic Director of the MAXXI in Rome, Italy. Hanru has curated numerous exhibitions including „Cities on the Move“ (1997–1999), Shanghai Biennale (2000), Gwangju Biennale(2002), Venice Biennale (French Pavilion, 1999, Z.O.U. — Zone Of Urgency, 2003, Chinese Pavilion, 2007), Canton Express (2003, Venice), Nuit Blanche (2004, Paris), the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005), the 2nd Tirana Biennial (2005), the 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007), „Global Multitude“ (Luxembourg 2007), „Trans(cient)City“ (Luxembourg 2007), EV+A 2008 (Limerick), „The Spectacle of the Everyday, the 10th Lyon Biennale“ (Lyon, 2009), the 5th Auckland Triennial (Auckland, New Zealand, 2013) and co-curated the Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture (Shenzhen Hong Kong, 2017) etc.

Uriel Orlow

is an artist who lives and works between London, Lisbon and Zurich. Orlow’s work was presented at major survey exhibitions including the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), 8th Mercosul Biennial, Brazil (2011), Aichi Triennale (2013); Manifesta 9 in Genk (2012); Bergen Assembly (2013), Qalandia International (2014) EVA International (2014, 2016), 13th Sharjah Biennial 13 (2017), 7th Moscow Biennial (2017).

Shwetal A. Patel

is an independent writer and researcher currently pursuing his PhD at Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton). Patel was a founding member of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Koch Biennale Foundation), which has since it’s launch in 2012 become a widely attended and influential platform for contemporary art in Asia. Patel regularly contributes to journals and magazines and has lectured and presented at museums, universities and biennials internationally.

Rémi Dufay

is Associate Artist at L’Abri in Geneva for the 2018-2019 season and a member of Garage – Groupe d’Action pour la Rémunération des Artistes a Genève. Dufay’s artistic work, which is predominately research based, was shown in various exhibitions and group screenings in France and Switzerland. He is also active as a coordinator of various artistic projects: Dufay was the artistic director of the 4th edition of the Court-Circuit festival in Caen, co-coordinator of the 3rd biennial of independent art spaces in Geneva and co-programmer of the ÀDuplex art space in Geneva since 2017.

Guðrún Gísladóttir

is an artist based in Copenhagen. In partnership with visual artist Chris Biddlecombe, who is based in Glasgow, she leads the European Artist’s Rights (EARights) Project. Both Chris and Guðrún were involved in the European Council of Artists (ECA) and continued their collaboration when the ECA was dissolved. In 2013 EARights invited artists from several organisations in the broader Nordic area, to work together and initiate action on Exhibition Payment Rights (EPR), in their respective countries. This initial two year project has subsequently proven important in the work of the artists’ organisations involved. Since then, EARights endeavours to cooperate with other organisations in order to instigate a genuine EPR reform and encourage reforms in additional areas through collective artist bargaining. This goal can be achieved through cross-border networks and the exchange of information between artist groups and creative managers.

Rune Peitersen

is an artist, board member and co-founder of the Platform Beeldende Kunst Netherlands (Platform for Visual Arts), which is a strategic coalition that mobilizes existing networks and maps out new connections in order to develop a foundation for joint action and spokesmanship. The Platform Beeldende Kunst with Kunstenbond (artists’ union), Beroepsvereniging van Beeldende Kunstenaars (professional association of visual artists) and De Zaak Nu (interest group for art presentation organizations) was the initiator of the guideline for artist fees in Netherlands.

Josef Felix Müller

is a Swiss artist, editor and president of Visarte Switzerland (artists’ union). Visarte Switzerland is working on the issue of the remuneration of artists in Switzerland. In 2016 they’ve published a guideline with the aim to raise awareness of the need for fair artist remuneration in the exhibition business and to sensitize curators and institutions to the issue. In addition to the guidelines Visarte has developed two tools for members and other interested artists and exhibition institutions: a fee calculator and a project calculator.

Samuel Schellenberg

is a journalist an art critic. He is head of the cultural section of the newspaper Le Courrier in Geneva. Schellenberg writes in-depth articles on policy issues, gender equality in the cultural world and also on artists’ remuneration. In 2019 he is awarded with the Prix Meret Oppenheim.

Mareike Dittmer

is director of Art Stations Foundation CH, that is sustaining and developing Muzeum, Disputaziuns, Instituto, Temporars and Akziun Susch. Before she was the associate publisher of frieze magazine. Trained in cultural studies and communication at UDK Berlin, Mareike started working with frieze in 1999 and founded, together with Jörg Heiser, the frieze Berlin office. Since 2011 she is also part of the editorial team of mono.kultur, a Berlin based interview magazine and over the years Mareike has been involved with several exhibition and book projects. Most recently, together with Julieta Aranda, she became a chairperson of the 9th Futurological Congress that was launched in September 2016 in Warsaw (PL). The annual conference format, Disputaziuns Susch, Mareike has chaired since it premiered in October 2017. She lives in Susch (CH).

Claire Hoffmann

was born in Basel in 1985. After studying art history and English literature at the University of Basel, she was involved in several renowned institutions, particularly in Switzerland, including the Kunsthaus Langenthal, the Kunsthaus Zurich or the Schaulager Basel, and gained her experience in exhibition programming with international projects and in the independent scene, for instance, with the nomadic project deuxpiece. Among others, she co-curated a sculpture project by Swiss artist Edit Oderbolz in London in 2018, as well as an exhibition shown at the 2017 Copenhagen Contemporary. She has also served on various juries, such as Kunstkredit Basel and the Prix Manor Basel.

Lena Maria Thüring

was born in Basel in 1981, lives and works in Zurich. Thüring’s work had been shown in solo exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Baselland (2012) and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel (2013), Kunstmuseum Bern, PROGR, Bern (2015) and in groupshows and screenings at the Kunstmuseum Bern, Kunstmuseum Olten, Kunsthalle Basel, Haus der Kulturen Berlin, the Reina Sofia National Museum Madrid in Spain and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. She received several awards including Swiss Art Award (2008), Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation Award (2009, 2011), Grant from Zurich City (2011, 2016), Manorkunstpreis Basel (2013), Kunst am Bau, Swiss Embassy, Seoul (2018) and two artist residencies in Paris (2009) and New York (2010).

Martina-Sofie Wildberger

was born in Zürich. She is currently working on the power of language, alternative ways of communicating, the relationship between scribality and orality, as well as translation and translatability. The artist has shown her performances and has participated in exhibitions at the Swiss Cultural Center (Paris), Kunsthalle Mulhouse (France), Kunstmuseum Glarus, Fri-Art (Fribourg), Kunsthaus Aarau, Palais de l’Athénée (Geneva), Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, SALTS, Kunsthaus Baselland and Tinguely Museum in Basel. She has received the Swiss Art Award in 2012, the Kiefer Hablitzel Prize in 2015, a Work Grant from the Canton of Zurich in 2015 and from Pro Helvetia as well as from Shaffhausen in 2017. Furthermore, she is the recipient of the Manor Kunstpreis Schaffhausen 2019 and the Vordemberge-Gildewart Grant 2019. In addition, she did various artist residencies in New York, Berlin and Paris was 2018 fellow at the Istituto Svizzero di Roma in Italy.

Chus Martínez

is head of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel. Born in Spain, Martínez has a background in philosophy and art history. She previously worked as chief curator at El Museo Del Barrio, New York; for dOCUMENTA(13) (2012), she was head of department, and a member of the Core Agent Group. Other past positions include chief curator at MACBA, Barcelona (2008–2011), director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2005–2008) and artistic director of Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2002–2005). She also curated the National Pavilion of Catalonia at the 56th Biennale di Venezia (2015) as well as the National Pavilion of Cyprus (2005). She collaborated with the Istanbul Biennial (2015), Carnegie International (2010) and the Bienal de São Paulo (2010).Chus Martínez curated major exhibitions as part of her institutional positions and as a guest curator, among which most recently at Castello di Rivoli (2018); a special section of ARCO Madrid (2018), at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (2018; 2019), as well as Skulpturenpark, Cologne (2017–2019). She is a curator at der TANK, the Art Institute’s exhibition space where she has been curating specially commissioned exhibitions with international artists since 2015.Chus Martínez is the expedition leader of The Current, a project initiated by TBA21–Academy (2018–2020). She is also currently leading a research project in collaboration with Instituto Susch/Art Stations Foundation CH on the role of education in enhancing women’s equality in the arts. Martínez lectures and writes regularly, including numerous catalogue texts and critical essays, and is a regular contributor to international art journals.

Raffael Dörig

is the director and curator of Kunsthaus Langenthal. He was curator at Medienkunstraum [plug.in], Basel (2006-2010), 2007-2011 co-founder, co-curator and board member of Shift – Festival of Electronic Arts, Basel, which includes crossover exhibitions, music, film and video, workshops, lectures and performances. In 2011 Raffael Dörig was curator at the House for Electronic Arts, Basel.

Chris Sharp

is a writer and curator based in Mexico City where he co-runs the project space Lulu. He is a contributing editor to Art Agenda and his writing appeared in many publications, online forums and magazines.

Pedro Wirz

is a Swiss-Brazilian artist living in Zurich. Wirz’s oeuvre is predominantly sculptural or installation-based, and refers to ideas around community, folklore, storytelling and is concerned by themes of a more universal nature – for example the age-old question of the relationship between «nature» and «culture», or expressed in a more contemporary way, the relationship between humans and non-human organisms and ecosystems. Recent solo exhibitions include A curbing wall of debris (a two chapter exhibition at Kunsthaus Langenthal and Centre Culturel Paris, 2019), Wiþ Ymbe, (Galerie PHILIPPZOLLINGER, Madulain, 2019), Terra Quente (LongTang, Zürich, 2019), Breastfed Tadpole (Kai Matsumiya Gallery, New York, 2018); Fábula, Frisson, Melancolia (Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, 2017); Dobrar de Espinho, Anzol (Murias Centeno Gallery, Porto, 2017); and The Horse Who Drunk Beer (Kai Matsumiya Gallery, New York, 2016). His work has also been presented at the Centre Pasquart, Biel (2018), Galerie Nagel Draxler Diko-Reisen, Cologne (2018), Blank Projects Gallery, Cape Town (2018), Tinguely Museum, Basel (2016), CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On-Hudson (2015), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2013), Dortmunder Kunstverein (2013), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013), and Kunsthalle Basel (2011).