Birgit Widmer. Born 1964, lives and works in Gais/AR . http://www.birgitwidmer.ch http://www.birgitwidmer.kleio.com

Widmer focuses on drawings and model-like sculptures, which she combines into installations. The visual artist deals with the questions: What is a body, why is it and what does it mean, what does it mean that it is for whom and where. She works with easily transportable material, for which she has coined the term nomadic material.

Caroline Alexandra Stadelmann. Born 1994. Lives and works in Zürich.

She has studied Freie Kunst at the F+F School of Art and Design Zurich from 2020-2023, as well as BA History and Science of Journalism at the University of Zurich from 2014-2018.

Coming from a strong writing practice, the artist is interested in translating text into performative and installative positions. Caroline’s main interest lies in the complexity, simultaneity, and ambiguity of our every day.

In dealing with abstract ideas, such as quality, change, cyberspace, hierarchical power structures, education systems, self-optimization or transit spaces (to name a few), Caroline tries to entangle and render more accessible those parts of systems, that are often veiled, presupposed or irritating. The critical decoding of stability as a driving force in our today’s society is a big part of her practice.

Through spoken word performances or minimal but expansive installations the artist negotiates connecting points to and opens discussions about those abstract systems. Although the aspect of irritation plays a big role in her practice, Caroline’s work has a lightness to it. Thus humor, absurdity and seriousness often go hand in hand in her pieces.

Ilmārs Šterns, 1989 Born in Latvia. Lives and works in Bern/CH in collaboration with Lara Buffard, London /UK.www.ilmarssterns.com. https://www.larabuffard.com

„I am interested in the diversity of my voice and body gestures and interact with everyday objects using non-verbal communication in my artistic practice. My work includes acoustic, tactile and visual perceptions.“ Ilmārs Šterns

He’s a composer and performer [sound & movement – related arts]. For several years, the artist has been interested in researching the extension of body gestures and voice in confrontation with objects, pushing the boundaries and creating a new concept of musical performance. Manipulating the expressions of the body and interacting with objects beyond their pragmatic functions, Šterns focuses on the creation of communicative structures, whilst considering the hierarchy and interactions between sound and movement, between autonomy and controllability. Here the body and the object become co-authors of improvisation, composition and sound structures. In these situations, in which movement and sound are equally important, the boundaries between the categories of music and dance blur, resulting in sonic-choreographic compositions.

Šterns is an active member of PANCH (Performance Art Network Switzerland) and Pakt-Bern (The New Music Network). Recently Ilmārs Šterns received one-year creative scholarship from the State Culture Capital Foundation (VKKF) of Latvia (2023).

In 2014 he graduated from the Riga Academy of Pedagogy and Educational Management with a Master’s degree in Contemporary Music, in 2017 he studied at the Art Academy of Latvia for a Master’s degree in Scenography, and in 2020 he received his latest Master’s degree in Performing Art and Sound Art from the University of the Arts Bern.

Lara Buffard is a French Baroque persona based in London. She is a performance artist and a maker who incorporates symbolic and surrealistic visuals within her work. Lara is interested in exploring the personal, feminist strategies and subjectivities in a lived world, the liminal space between reality and surreal fantasy, performance art and ritual. She subverts the darkest aspects of life through striking and colourful images, communicating personal and social ideas in playful and powerful acts, transforming the human body into a Raphaelite creature. Lara graduated in Museology and later after an early middle-life crisis in Theatre Performance and Contemporary Live Arts. She is Body Intelligence Collective’s creative producer which involves contemporary dance and new technology.

Yadanar Win and Kolatt. Myanmar / Birma – Marseille / FR

Yadanar Win is a multi-media artist currently based in Marseille/ FR. http://www.yadanarwin-art.com http://facebook.com/yadanariator

With an early interest in international exchange, driven by her university studies in English, she joined New Zero Art Space as a collaborative member in 2009, after which she has been involved in the cultural scene for 10 years, not only as an artist, but also as an organiser and coordinator of several cultural projects and exchanges in Myanmar. Her unique ability to seamlessly merge her own body with the documentation of her performance to create an art object reflects her generation’s willingness to experiment with all mediums and abandon the traditional painting and sculpture so prevalent in the Myanmar art scene. Her performances are passionate and critical. They often refer to the plight of Myanmar’s peace and democracy process and her personal struggles as a young artist under tyranny.

Kolatt. Born 1987 in Paung City, Myanmar. Works and lives in Yangon, Myanmar/Birma. Ko Latt holds a B.A. (Eco) from Yangon University, Birma. He studied M.A. in Fine Arts at the ZHDK, Zurich/CH (2012). He joined New Zero art space (2009) and attended several workshops led by international and local artists.

His works reflect personal expressions towards social norms, homosexuality, dogmas of faith and politics. He has participated in several art exhibitions in Europe and Asia. During the last two years, Kolatt’s art works expressed being a young homosexual artist in Myanmar, also he highlights the issues of open expression and social and cultural boundaries where many young people in Myanmar endure. Since February, Kolatt has been very active in the art movements against military rule, both individually and with the 3AM collective, which he founded with two other performance artists. In 2012, he was invited by Art Tripping to give a solo performance in Lyon. Currently, he has again been invited by Art Tripping to be a resident artist in Lyon for 6 months. There he will create a series of performances expressing his personal emotions, feelings, anger, hopes, fears as well as highlighting the situation in Myanmar. Later, the documentation of his performances will be transformed into an exhibition in a gallery in Lyon, in partnership with Art Tripping Organisation or their art space. The project is supported by the Institut Français de Birmanie and Art.

künstlerinnenkollektiv marsie – marsie consists of Simone Etter and Marianne Papst and sees itself as a loose collective through its coherent, collaborative artistic approach and process-oriented art-making. Founded in 2012. https://www.marsie.ch / https://www.instagram.com/kuenstlerinnenkollektivmarsie

The collective and networked way of working and, in particular, the mediation and experience of contemporary art for a public are at the centre of our artistic practice. Collective working, according to our thesis, aims to democratise art in order to promote and experience awareness and appreciation of art in as broad a section of society as possible. We interrogate differences between the work – an active process, a movement that purposefully and critically breaks down precisely what constitutes a particular practice: performance as an encounter with art.

Marianne Papst, *1982 completed her education in 2010 with a Master of Arts in Mediation of Art and Design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel at the Institute „Lehrberufe für Gestaltung und Kunst“ HGK FHNW. Since 2012 she has been working as an artist in the artist collective marsie. Her works are often created on site, are mostly temporary and therefore very immediate and topical. Her main interest is the collective way of working and a performative, partitipative and interactive art. In addition to her artistic practice and teaching, she manages the fund of the Werkraum Warteck pp association in Basel and was previously also a board member there. She is co-organiser of the performance art biennial „Kunst der Begegnung“ in Basel and from 2014- 2020, together with Nora Born and Fritz Rösli, she ran NACHTHAFEN, a shelter for cultural workers, travellers and socio-cultural projects.

Simone Etter *1982 she has a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Bern University of the Arts. Bachelor and Master of Arts in Mediation of Art and Design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW. From 2011 to 2016 she was an artistic-scientific assistant at the HGK/ FHNW in Basel. Simone Etter works as an independent artist, but also as an artistic-scientific expert, organiser (Kunst der Begegnung), lecturer (HKB) and curator (Das marsie). Longer stays abroad and studio fellowships in Paris, Berlin and Dübendorf. In 2020 she opened „Das marsie – Raum für kollektive Kunst“ together with Marianne Papst in the centre of Zurich. The artist walks, documents, intervenes and contextualises. She specifically, almost systematically scientifically examines how her work and walking in public social spaces affect the way they deal with power structures, norms and behaviour. With performative-artistic interventions, she argues, these can be renegotiated and transformed. In 2021, Etter was awarded the Förderpreis für bildende Kunst des Kantons Solothurn.

Wassili Widmer born in Heiden/CH, 1992. lives and works in Glasgow, Zürich, Appenzell. wassili.org
They have a Master of Letters in Fine Arts Practice, Pathway Performance, Glasgow School of Art (2018-2019). Bachelor in Fine Arts, Performance Study Group, Zurich University of the Arts (2014-18). Study abroad, School of Art Institute, Chicago (2016). In addition, numerous awards and grants, e.g.
Emerging Artist Residency with Laura McGlinchey Shedhalle Eisenwerk, Frauenfeld. Annual residency at Lumpenstation Lumpenstation, Biel. Cantonal Prize Appenzell Ausserrhoden Department of Culture Appenzell Ausserrhoden 3-month studio residency in Cairo Pro Helvetia Switzerland.
Twelve-month drawing series commissioned by the Kunstverein, St. Gallen Art Museum

„I find inspiration for my work in ongoing research in the fields of art, art history, political theory and psychology. Important influences for my practice are movements such as Fluxus, Dada or the Situationist International, i.e. process-oriented art that often has a socio-political reference.
I work with methods from these movements and combine them with contemporary concepts of fluidity and post-humanism.
My multimedia works are based on social group activities such as dialogues, workshops, and research excursions. The central idea is played around in a kind of collaborative, self-dynamic melody until the work expresses itself in a peculiar form.“ Wassili Widmer.

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