Exhibition
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Artists

Abdelaziz Zerrou ↘

(1982, Casablanca) lives and works in Vira Gambarogno. He grew up in Morocco and studied at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tétouan. His artistic practice encompasses video, installations, and drawings. He is interested in universal symbolic figures and their graphical representation. He offers new perspectives by using symbolic icons deeply rooted in popular culture and superstition. He has received several awards, including the HYam Hydra Prize. His works have been exhibited in various contexts, including the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rabat; the Museum of Photography and Visual Arts, Marrakech; the New Art Exchange Museum, Nottingham.

Andrea Marioni ↘

(*1986, Munich) lives in Biel. In his work, Andrea Marioni is inspired by Marshall McLuhan's definition of an artist: "The criminal, like the artist, is a social explorer." Andrea Marioni simultaneously explores different environments, from industry to gastronomy, from film technology to public advertising on the streets. His works are often presented as activities of imaginary start-ups, whose "business model" draws on various poetic strategies. His creative process includes multiple disciplines such as performance, photography, installations, graphic forms, radio, and poetry. Marioni draws from this hybrid approach to explore the unsaid, trauma, and the repressed, expressing what the mind refuses to think and generating a transformation process that produces memory. Andrea Marioni has exhibited in numerous institutions and festivals in Switzerland and Europe, including Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, MASI in Lugano, Fri-Art in Fribourg, Monte Verità in Ascona, far° Festival in Nyon, and the Festival Performance in Varazdin, Croatia. Since 2017, Marioni has also been active as a curator, but it would be more accurate to say that he is an artist who invites other artists to participate in unconventional exhibitions. In 2019, he founded Lumpen Station, a web radio that offers artists and curators the opportunity to explore sound creation.

Annelies Štrba ↘

(1947, Zug) lives between Richterswil and Arcegno. She is a multimedia artist with a specific focus on photography, digital media, and video. Through her practice she explores subjects such as the domestic, the portrait, and both urban and natural landscapes. Within the body of images she creates a personal narrative made of intertwined lives and relationships, memories, nostalgic reactions, and realizations. Over the course of her career, she has traveled extensively, spending time in Japan, Poland, Scotland, Paris, England. Her works have been exhibited in various contexts, including: Kunsthalle Zürich; Kunsthaus Glarus; Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil.

Asia Capaldi ↘

(1999, Lugano) lives and works in Zurich, where she is enrolled in the Master's program at ZHdK. Her artistic practice is multifaceted: through the media of performance, happening, painting, and installation, she elaborates on popular culture and the facets of contemporaneity. Her works have recently been showcased at: Performance, ZHdK Zurich (2023); PINK, Moon Gallery, Lugano (2020).

Camillo Paravicini ↘

(1987, Poschiavo) lives and works in Basel. In his artistic practice, Camillo Paravicini humorously and unpredictably questions everything considered true or certain in the artistic field. His works always appear mischievous and casual in their accuracy and precision, playfully overturning our expectations of art. Camillo Paravicini has exhibited in numerous museum institutions in Switzerland, including the Art Museum of Graubünden in Chur, Kunstmuseum in Lucerne, and mudac in Lausanne. He graduated with the Manor Chur Prize in 2021.

Davide Barberi ↘

(1998, Locarno) lives and works in Milan, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree from NABA-Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, and where he's attending thetwo-year program in visual arts and curatorial studies. His artistic practice and personal imagery are deeply influenced by his rural background, steeped in stillness and nature. His visual vocabulary revolves around childlike aspects and powerful scenarios, shaping sculptures and installations that explore the various ways in which humans and the natural element coexist. Among his recent exhibitions are: Il Parlamento delle Cose, PAV Torino (2023); Voicing the Archive, Triennale Milano (2023); (Im)possible Ecologies, Orto Botanico di Roma (2022); ACO1, Magadino art department (2021).

Eleonora Meier ↘

(1977, Mendrisio) lives and works in Zurich. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and at the ZHDK in Zurich. Her artistic practice, centered around the mediums of painting and drawing, focuses on the appropriation and reconstruction of ephemeral architectures that exist in false perspectives. Meier's painting is a subtle play of additions and subtractions that are constructed in a two-dimensional logic. Through her paintings, Meier creates an intimate and magical universe that can be accessed from another reality. Her work has been exhibited on many occasions and in various contexts, including the Mendrisio Art Museum, Passage de Retz in Paris, KW in Berlin, Likeyou Projects in Zurich, Hisk in Antwerp, De Balie in Amsterdam, and the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht.

Enea Toldo ↘

(1988, Locarno) grew up in Russo and studied at the Centro Scolastico Industrie Artistiche (CSIA) in Lugano. Prior to his career as a painter, he had a decade-long career as a graphic designer. His artistic practice is rooted on an ecological reflection, thanks to the experimental use of natural and low-impact materials such as raw earth, sand, and straw. In his paintings, he addresses current and urgent themes such as waste disposal, animal and plant extinction, and the rising sea levels. In 2022, he received the ExtrArtis Art Prize. His works have been exhibited in various contexts, including: Villaggio Differente, Milan; La Rada, Locarno; ReA! Art Fair, Milan; Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan.

Francesca Sproccati ↘

(1984) is an artist active in the field of contemporary dance and performing arts, co-founder of the TIB – Ticino is Burning movement. She creates scenic installations that become contemplative environments in which sound, matter and sensation stimulate and enhance the dimension of listening and give space to the encounter between body and matter beyond the performance itself, staging a fragile and unresolved space that is left to the public to complete.

Gabriel Stöckli ↘

(Mendrisio, 1991) lives and works between Milan and Lugano. He graduated in Visual arts and Curatorial studies at NABA-Nuova Accademia di Belle arti in Milan. Working exclusively with analogue formats and materials easily found in everyday life, he puts emphasis on everything that can be transformed with the combination of hands and mind. Through this approach, starting from poor material or objet trouvé he creates handcrafted sculptures and two-dimensional works, which are at the same time also an extension of the artist himself. Since 2014 he is a member of the off-space Sonnenstube in Lugano. He exhibited both in Switzerland and abroad, including: JCCAC, Hong Kong (2022); Hermann Nitsch Museum, Naples (2021); Spazio Officina, Chiasso (2020); Schwobhaus, Bern (2020); MAT, Neuchâtel (2019); La Triennale, Milan (2017); La Rada, Locarno (2016).

Giovanna Belossi ↘

(1991, Bellinzona) lives and works in Lausanne. She attended the work.master program at HEAD in Geneva. Her multidisciplinary artistic practice revolves around her exploration of the theme of vision and forms of language. In her works, she delves into the manifold relationships between image and imagination, forms of language, and personal beliefs, experimenting with materials and dimensionality. Among her recent exhibitions are: Too High in The Sky, All Stars Lausanne (2022); The Great in the Small, 13 Vitrine Lausanne (2022); Jardin d’Hiver, MCBA Lausanne (2021); L’éducation sentimentale, Lemme Sion (2021); None of the Above, Centre Pompidou KANAL Brussels (2020).

Johanna Kotlaris ↘

(1988, Schaffhausen) is an artist based in Zurich. Through performance, video, installation, sculpture and writing, her work examines the complexity of interpersonal relationship dynamics, the various energies that result from these interactions and the ways in which we are responsible for ourselves and others in care and conflict practices. She often takes on roles of fictional characters and reacts to site specific context to tell stories of struggle and pleasure. Her works have been most recently shown at: Kunstmuseum Lucerne; Kunsthalle Bern; Arsenic Theatre, Lausanne; Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich. She has been awarded residencies at Rupert, Vilnius; Air Berlin Alexanderplatz; Foundation BINZ39, Zurich; F+F Kunstatelier in Zurich and Berlin.

Massimiliano Rossetto ↘

(1993) graduated in Fine Arts and Contemporary Photography from the BLOO University of Lyon (France) and he is currently pursuing the Master of Fine Arts program at the ZHdK in Zurich. In his artistic practice he explores the complexity of human interaction with the environment and the notion of landscape, by means of a photography that is capable of expanding in space by means of installation supports. His attention is directed above all to spaces and objects shaped by human activity, whether built, destroyed or altered. He exhibited in various contexts both in Switzerland and abroad, including: ETH, Zurich (2023); Huaguang Photography Art Museum, Quanzhou (China, 2023); IPFO Haus der Fotografie, Olten (2021); Photobastei, Zurich (2020).

Miki Tallone ↘

(1968, Bellinzona) grew up in the Sopraceneri region and studied graduated in graphic design from the Centro Scolastico Industrie Artistiche (CSIA) in Lugano. Her artistic research is centered around the exploration of space and the collection of private and collective memories of places. In 2012, she won the Swiss Art Award and in 2015 she was selected for the Collection Cahiers d'Artistes by Pro Helvetia. Her works have been exhibited in various contexts, including: the Mendrisio Art Museum; Monte Verità Park, Ascona; Bex&Arts, Bex; Liste, Basel; Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art, Genoa; MA*GA Museum of Contemporary Art, Gallarate; Montagu Bastion, Gibraltar, UK; KmL, Lucerne; House for Art Uri, Altdorf; National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik.

Peilian Li ↘

(1994, Beihai) grew up between China and Ticino and studied Visual arts at the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne (ECAL). The works resulting from her artistic practice avoid ordinary logic in favor of an ecstatic exploration of ideas. Through poetic practice and visual tools, she often transforms feelings into scenarios that extend into space in the form of installations. She also experiments with various languages and expressions stemming from her origins, namely Italian, Chinese, and Swiss. Her works have been exhibited in various contexts, including: MASSIMO Space, Milan; Garage, Guadalajara (Mexico); Egg-ZhDk Space, (Zurich); Vitrine 13, Renens.

Samuele Gabai ↘

(1949, Ligornetto). His multifaceted artistic practice between drawing, intaglio engraving and painting is an expressive unicum, outside formalistic schemes. Rooted in the informal, he persists in the figural search for meaning, liberated in color. His works are rich in theological, humanistic and philosophical references, and the repertoire of the image is evocative. His work, supported by an uncommon critical apparatus, can be found in public and private Museums and Collections in Switzerland and abroad. Bibliophilic publications of Chalcographic Art have been acquired by major libraries: the "Swiss National" in Bern, the "Cantonale" in Lugano and Basel, the "Deutsche Nationalbibliothek" in Frankfurt, "l'Ambrosiana" in Milan. Among the Mosaics are the one in the San Fermo Oratory in Campora (2016) and the one in the Parish Church of San Giorgio in Coldrerio (2014).

Sandro Pianetti ↘

(1987, Zug) lives and works between Locarno and Lugano. He grew up in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland and after obtaining a Bachelor in Visual arts at the ÉCAL in Lausanne, he attended a MAS in Interaction design at SUPSI in Lugano. In his sculptural and installation works, he mainly investigates the relationship between man and machine, as well as showing an interest in the generative and transformative processes, both natural and artificial, of the materials used. He is among the members of the contemporary art off-space Sonnenstube in Lugano. He exhibited in various group shows including: Espace libre, Biel (2022); Premio Giovani Artisti, Spazio Officina, Chiasso (2022); La Rada, Locarno (2018); Sonnenstube, Lugano (2017).

Simonetta Martini ↘

(1961, Lugano) lives and works in Malcantone. Her works explore themes and artistic languages often forgotten, evoking pre-Renaissance frescoes with tempera colors. Her canvases, exhibited without frames, convey profound tranquility and sometimes an aura of sacredness. In the 2000s, her work opened up to the everyday and silent landscapes, incorporating rare human or animal presences. She also studied and drew inspiration from ancient Chinese art, particularly Shi Tao, to create works that explore interiorized landscapes with a fluid perspective. Her works are present in various institutional collections in Switzerland, including the Art Collections of the Confederation in Bern, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, MASI in Lugano, and Mendrisio Art Museum in Mendrisio.

Tristebacio Club ↘

is an artistic duo composed by Manuele Rezzonico and Nicola Martinelli (both 1999, Lugano). They live and work in Zurich, where they are attending the Bachelor's program at ZHdK. Through their often large-scale installations they address themes related to the daily lives of young people in the contemporary era. Their imagery is surreal, characterized by a melancholic aesthetic that contrasts with the playful and ironic approach in representing the fictitious similarity between romantic dreams, real life, and its complications. Among their recent exhibitions: Lokal-int, Biel (2023); Foreverr, Coco Como (2023); Trust Fall, Toni Areal Zurich (2022); Screensaver, Langstrasse Kultur Zurich (2021).

Viola Poli ↘

(1992, Brusino Arsizio) lives and works between Ticino and Geneva, where she graduated at HEAD. The investigation of industrial, urban and everyday space is a central part of her artistic research, focusing her interest above all on organisms resistant to human domination and on all parallel, infinitely interconnected forms of life. Poli recreates spatial installations that evoke pre- or post-apocalyptic environments, working with heterogeneous materials in continuous transformation. Her works have been exhibited at: Halle Nord, Geneva (2023); Soul2Soul, Saules (2022); Espace Libre, Biel (2022); TOPIC, Geneva (2022).

Events

Inaugurazione

7.12
gio, dalle ore 18:00
gratuito

Out of me, inside you

Francesca Sproccati
9.12
sa, dalle ore 13:00 alle 17:00
gratuito

Rottam–azione

Andrea Marioni
con Marko Miladinovic,
musiche Hervé T.
9.12
sa, dalle ore 17:30 alle 18:00
gratuito

a cura di LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura:

Mimesis. A one to one performance

ideazione, progetto e performance
Elena Boillat

16.12
sa, dalle ore 11:00 alle 17:30
gratuito
dai 12 anni
entrata accessibile ad
un solo spettatore alla volta

“Hai mai passato più di 2 minuti davanti ad un’opera d’arte e ... provato a danzarla?”: partendo da questa domanda, Elena Boillat – artista indipendente attiva nell’ambito delle arti performative come interprete e creatrice poliedrica – si interroga sul connubio tra osservazione, relazione ed emozione, sui meccanismi alla base della visione percettiva di un’opera d’arte e su come questi influenzino la condizione del corpo posto di fronte ad essa.

Coreomedia

idea e regia
Ariella Vidach, Claudio Prati

13.01
Sa, ore 17:00
gratuito

La coreografa e danzatrice Ariella Vidach e il videoartista Claudio Prati – direttori artistici di AiEP – creano un lavoro ad hoc per La Regionale. L’intervento performativo di AiEP propone delle coreografie inedite site specific, inserite in un contesto spazio-temporale che espande le dimensioni del reale e colloca i danzatori e il pubblico in “soglia“. Uno spazio intermedio ibrido, al limite del confine tra realtà e virtualità, dove è possibile sperimentare nuove percezioni del corpo e dell’ambiente, relazionandosi con gli elementi che lo compongono così come con i soggetti che lo animano.

«E adesso…?» giornata di approfondimento per artist* e operatrici e operatori culturali

20.01
Sa, dalle ore 11:00 alle 18:00
gratuito

11:00—12:00

Fondazione Svizzera per la cultura Pro Helvetia, Martina Lughi, specialista incontri e iniziative globali e Ascanio Cecco, specialista arti visive e fotografia. Presentazione delle modalità di sostegno di Pro Helvetia nell’ambito delle arti visive e delle residenze artistiche e curatoriali, con annesso momento di discussione e Q&A. www.prohelvetia.ch

13:45—15:30

Maricruz Peñaloza per PANCH—Performance Art Network Switzerland. Presentazione Network e Q&A (la presentazione e la discussione avverranno in inglese). www.panch.li

15:45—17:00

Giulia Walter per l’associazione Rights in the arts. Presentazione e slot disponibili per consulenze private.
Clicca qui per iscriverti!
www.rightsinthearts.org

16:45—17:45

Portfolio viewing con Alfio Mazzei (grafico e professore al CSIA). Tutt* sono invitat* a portare il loro portfolio (artistico, grafico, curatoriale, etc.) da sottoporre a un occhio esperto: grafica, impostazione, contenuto, possibilità di sviluppo, etc. sono alcuni dei temi che verranno analizzati insieme ad Alfio Mazzei. intervista su Form magazine

Live performance

di Camilla Sparksss

27.01
Sa, ore 17:00
gratuito

Camilla Sparksss torna a La Regionale con una performance audiovisiva improvvisata sul tema della ciclicità, integrando dal vivo l’uso di endless grooves su vinile, sintetizzatori e spoken words. Artista multidisciplinare svizzero-canadese, dal 2013 si è esibita in oltre 400 spettacoli dal vivo in Europa, Nord Africa, Canada e Stati Uniti in locali, teatri e festival.

Exhibition
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Artists

Livio Bernasconi ↘

Livio Bernasconi (*1932, Muralto) studied at the Brera Academy in Milan. Bernasconi began his artistic career with a style of neo-realist imprint, and then gradually moved on to abstract painting. Bernasconi’s artistic practice is characterized by a long and varied pictorial research focused on form and color, where the sign remains self-referential, the pictorial writing precise and depersonalized. His works have been exhibited in different contexts and linguistic regions of Switzerland, such as the Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Museum Villa dei Cedri, the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen.

Alan Bogana ↘

Alan Bogana (*1979, Faido) is a Swiss artist, born in Ticino and currently based in Geneva. Over the years, he has developed a multifaceted art practice involving installations, sculptures, time-based media, virtual reality and holography. His research focuses on the real and speculative behavior of light as well as on the emergence of organic shapes and patterns by means of technological processes. His works delve into the mediating roles that technoscience cultures play in our perceptions, in our understanding of reality and in the construction of the notion of nature. He completed a Fine Arts Diploma with honors at the Geneva University of Art and Design in 2009 and a specialization in artistic research methodologies at the Zürich University of Art and Design in 2013. Bogana has won the Bally Artist Prize in 2018 and the Pax Art Award in 2019.

Aline D’Auria ↘

Aline d’Auria (*1982, Lugano) lives and works in Chiasso, Switzerland. After earning her first degrees from the Ecole d’Arts Visuels in Vevey and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She also holds a diploma as a Designer, specialized in video, from the HEAD in Geneva. Since 2009 she has been part of the Swiss association for contemporary photography near., and in 2015 she co-founded the cultural association Grande Velocità, headquartered at Spazio Lampo in Chiasso, where she collaborates as a curator. Her work questions the idea of belonging and displacement. She presented her multichannel video installation We are all going home at the Biennale dell’immagine di Chiasso (2019), Bienne Festival of Photography and at the Algae Festival Como (2021). Taken from this last work is the homonymous book freshly published and edited by Artphilein Editions.

Luisa Figini ↘

Luisa Figini (*1954, Mendrisio) studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Bourges, (F) (1981-83), at the Haute Ecole d’art et Design of Geneva (1998-2002) and at the University of Rovereto-Trento (I) (2008-09), now she lives and works in Ticino. Since the '80s he has been developing an artistic research characterized by an intimate relationship with matter and by experimentations with different media such as sculpture, objects, multimedia installations, articulated around three fundamental axioms: the object, the body, the relationship. Figini has exhibited in Switzerland and abroad in solo and group shows in important museums and exhibition venues such as the Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano, the Biennale dell’Immagine in Chiasso, the Museo Vincenzo Vela in Ligornetto and the Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna in Ascona; the Kunstmuseum of Olten, the Musée des Beaux-Arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Musée Jurassien des Arts of Moutier, the Palais de l’Athénée of Geneva, the Villa Bernasconi of Lancy-Geneva, the Centro Culturale Svizzero of Milan.

Luca Frei ↘

Luca Frei (*1976, Lugano) lives and works in Malmö, Sweden. His interdisciplinary practice includes installation and performance, as well as exhibition and graphic design. He has had solo and group exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Glarus, the Bonner Kunstverein, the Malmö Konsthall, the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Bildmuseet in Umeå and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, among others. His works have been exhibited at the then Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Tate Liverpool, The Drawing Room in London, M HKA in Antwerp, CentroCentro in Madrid, and Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao. He has also participated in several biennials, including the International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, the Cairo Biennial, the Prague Biennial and the Istanbul Biennial.

Giulio Gamba ↘

Born in Ticino in 1997, Giulio Gamba lives and works in Zurich, where he completed his masters at the ZhDK in 2021. His painting practice finds its origins in the graffifi, to more recent works on framed and unframed canvas, thus becoming more tridimensional. He exhibited in various contexts, such as Carì Art Safari (2021), Ca’ Rezzonico Lugano (2019), “Zu Besuch” Group Exhibition at ZHDK (2019).

Lucas Herzig ↘

Through his artistic production, Lucas Herzig (*1988, Zurich) approaches topics such as hybrid identities and the creation of new myths. He often uses archaeological aesthetics, thus going back in time to produce something in the present. One of the main characteristics of his work is the creation of situations that cannot be clearly placed in history, thus raising questions about the categorization, attribution and belonging of these artifacts. His works have been exhibited: Die Diele, Lokal-Int, larada, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Sonnenstube, MASI.

Maya Hottarek ↘

Maya Hottarek (*1990, Chironico) lives and works in Biel/Bienne and Basel. She studied at the University of applied Sciences Bern and Institut Kunst Basel. Her artistic work interacts with various media, mostly with ceramic and sound, and usually revolves around a specific topic. A fundamental interest of the artist is to articulate the complex interactions between the individual, society and the economy, and trying to relate these themes to our basic needs, by asking ourselves how the individual, given all of the possibilities that are given to them, can deal with their own existence? Her works function as characters in all-compassing installations. Inspired by everyday life I attempt, through various methods, to filter out its simplicity. The artist tries, through various techniques, to filter the simplicity of everyday life. Her goal is to open up to new realities by questioning the common notion of perception. Her works have been exhibited in different institutionsi, among them Espace Libre Bienne, Lokal Int, CAN Neuchatel, Stiftung Binz39, Sonnenstube, Centre Pasquarte.

Kaspar Ludwig ↘

Kaspar Ludwig (Nuremberg, 1989) received his bachelor’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara and his master’s degree from the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel. In 2020 he is a finalist of the Swiss Art Awards and in 2019 he wins the Helvetia Art Prize; in 2022 he will be in residence in Tokyo with Atelier Mondial. Exhibitions include: I always do shadows to deform myself, Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano, 2020 (solo show); The Sunrise Sings, Tarmak22, Gstaad, 2020; Far from comfortable, Helvetia Art Prize, Liste, Basel, 2019 (solo show); Dogs only fly in 3rd class, Nicolas Krupp, Basel, 2019 (solo show); Insonne, Sonnenstube, Lugano, 2019; Solidi Platoonici, larada, Locarno, 2017.

Lisa Lurati ↘

Drawing from a broad palette of techniques, ranging from photography, cyanotype and drawing, to sculpture and video, Lisa Lurati’s (*1989, Lugano) work manages to occupy a very particular space. A space, where pure aesthetics mingle with the deeply personal, where existentialmeditations are thrown into the mix with the absurd and trivial, all the while keeping up a deep sense of humility and wonder towards the outside and inside world. Through her work she is keeping meaning and references in a constant state of flux, never quite revealing one single interpretation.Is she examining the relationship between us humans, globalized capitalism,and our effect on planet earth? Is she’s commenting on the absurdity of a little plastic shopping bag, in theface of eternity? Or else, is she just playing around, in the hopes making some sense out ofthis whole mess? Either way, this ambiguity is what makes her work all the more seductive.By eschewing the trap of simplistic finger pointing, she makes room for multifacetedinterpretations and discussions. Her works have been exhibited at the Centre d’art Contemporaine Yverdon, Photophorum Pasquart, la rada, Sonnenstube.

Aldo Mozzini ↘

Aldo Mozzini’s (*1956, Locarno) creations, often made from simple materials - be they objects, installations or photographic series - often reference urban situations and urban themes. The artist investigates the primary experience of the human being, the body, the space and objects. His view is not affirming, calculating or cynical, but rather a critical reflection of the present with humor and self-irony, sometimes producing veiled caricatures. The resulting estrangement is not an end in itself, but rather a hint of the questioning of material reality that surrounds. His works have been exhibited in different contexts, among them Helmhaus Zürich, Castello di Jesago (MI), Kunstkammer Schlieren, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Kunsthaus Grenchen, Vebikus Kunsthalle Schaffhausen.

Flavio Paolucci ↘

Flavio Paolucci’s (*1934, Torre) artistic practice has its roots in the act of observing and listening. The rural culture of Val di Blenio, where he was born in 1934, represents the red line of his works and has significantly influenced his production. Paolucci’s resarch today focuses on the use of paper, wood, soot and bronze. His works have been exhibited in many institutions and in many different contexts, among which we can find: Museo Civico Villa dei Cedri, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Musée Jenisch, and Musée cantonal des beaux-arts.

Gregorio Pedroli ↘

Gregorio Pedroli (*1951, Sorengo) tudied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel from 1968 to 1970 and from 1973 to 1977 at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where he obtained his degree in painting. He lives in Sorengo and works in Lugano. His latest solo exhibitions are: Museo Cantonale d’Arte (Ala Est) in 2004, Museo d’Arte Mendrisio in 2008 and Fondation Louis Moret in Martigny in 2013.

Noemi Pfister ↘

Noemi Pfister (*1991, Locarno) was born and raised in Locarno. Between 2014 and 2017, she studied visual arts at HEAD in Geneva, specializing in painting. In 2018, she moved to Basel, where she still lives and works and where she obtained a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Practice at HGK in 2019. After her graduation, she co-founded PALAZZINA, an off-space and artists’ house in Basel, where she lives and organizes exhibitions collectively with other artists. Since 2020, she has been co-curator and jury member of the PLATTFORM Prize. Through the mediums of painting, drawing and sculpture, Pfister questions the representation of the figure of the outsider, the marginalized, the one who is considered different.

Giorgia Piffaretti ↘

Giorgia Piffaretti (*1989, Mendrisio) is a visual artist currently based in Amsterdam, where she graduated with a Master of Film in the program “Artistic Research in and Through Cinema” in 2019. Her work has a particular focus on personal archival praxis, starting from the observation of everyday elements. Objects, pictures, drawings, moving images, etc., become starting points to unfold multiple narratives and perspectives, questioning the way in which meaning is created. In this sense, her work aims to re-contextualise the meaning of singular elements and inscribe them on a larger scale, thus creating connections between the individual and the collective. She explores these topics through video essays, multimedia installations, and lecture performances. Moving across fine arts and film, she has participated in several international exhibitions and film festivals. Giorgia Piffaretti was recently selected by the city of Lugano (in collaboration with SKK and Atelier Belgrad) to attend a residency in Belgrade.

Valentina Pini ↘

Valentina Pini (*1982, Ticino) lives and works in Zürich. Fascinated with reaction and evolution of materials, alchemy and phenomenological experience, her art practice is structured around the perception of matter. In her own way, with a mix of humour and rigour she plays with illusions and realities. Her sculptures show delicate and intricate visions of seemingly peaceful and irrelevant objects. Moving on a fine line between the recognisable and the indeterminate, her installations enable the observers to marvel thanks to their transformative power, that turns everyday objects to new unlikely purposes. Her work intertwines sculpture, installation and video and it falls somewhere between chemistry and magic, where the creation is not confessed flagrantly but disclosed subtly. Her work was recently showed at the Swiss Arts Awards 2021 and in November 2021 she will take part in the Media Arts Biennial, Santiago, Chile.

Viola Poli ↘

Viola Poli (*1992, Brusino Arsizio), was raised in Lugano, studies first pedagogy and then art at HEAD in Geneva. After a three-year period focusing on sculpture and installation, with an exchange semester in Leipzig, she completes a master in contemporary art practices. Industrial, urban and everyday space have been a central part of her artistic research since the beginning of her career, but it is especially during the last two years that her interest in these places begins to change, widening her point of view and shifting the focus to organisms resistant to human domination and to all forms of parallel life infinitely interconnected. Viola’s work is an encounter of heterogeneous materials, free to continue their cycle of transformation, almost imperceptible, drying, molding, contaminating, transforming. Between fiction and reality, a certain ambiguity is created about the material and the surrounding environment: a pre- or post-apocalyptic environment, a latent temporality or fragments of these imaginary places as relics of a past time.

Pascal Schwaighofer ↘

Pascal Schwaighofer (*1976, Locarno) lives and works in Zurich (CH), Ithaca (USA), and Marseille (FR). He graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Cornell University, writing a dissertation on the politico-philosophical implications of the swarm, network and multitude, iconically embedded in the “honeybee metaphor.” Schwaighofer’s artistic practice focuses on metaphors and analogies of apparently unrelated narratives, politics, economies and aesthetics. His works have been exhibited in several institutions across Europe, such as the Center of Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, (BJ); Kunstmuseum Lucerne, (CH); MAGA museum, Gallarate, (IT); Aargauer Kunsthaus, (CH); Kolumba Museum, Cologne, (DE); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, (FR); Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, (CH).

Miguela Tamo ↘

Miguela Tamo (*1962, Poschiavo) was born and raised in Poschiavo, and studied sculpture and painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. She now lives and works in Basel. Her artistic practice focuses mainly on drawing and sculpture, the latter understood as a three-dimensional intervention that interferes and redefines space and vice versa. During her career, Tamo has also ventured into graphic projects, photography, video, and painting. During the last ten years she has worked on numerous installations and sculptures in clay and porcelain, materials that fascinate her because of their similarities with drawing: every movement or pressure of the hands or feet leaves an imprint. Always fascinated by large formats, while working with clay and porcelain she has tried to overcome the obstacle of the small format imposed by these materials by modeling hundreds and thousands of pieces that once assembled would create installations and sculptures of large dimensions. Sensuality, precision, ambiguity, humor and poetry are fundamental aspects of Miguela Tamo’s works. Her works have been exhibited in different contexts, among them Kunsthaus Langenthal, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Salone del Brunelleschi (IT).

Vera Trachsel ↘

Vera Trachsel (*1988, Bern) grew up between Emmental and Ticino. She studied Vermittlung von Kunst und Design at HKB Bern (BA), where she also completed a master’s degree in Contemporary Arts Practice in 2015. Since 2015, she has been living and working in Biel/Bienne. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions north and south of the Alps, including: Krone-Coronne (2021); Daniele Agostini Gallery (2020); Milieu (2018); Sonnenstube (2017); la rada (2017); Lokal-int (2015). In 2016 her work was awarded the Kunstverein Prize, in 2018 the Manor Prize of the Canton of Ticino, and in 2021 the Aeschlimann-Corti Stipendium.