Swiss Art Awards 2016

Today the Swiss Federal Office of Culture announced this year’s winners of the Swiss Art Awards, Switzerland’s most acclaimed art competition. The awards annually honour outstanding positions in contemporary art, architecture as well as mediation.

The Swiss Art Awards are part of Switzerland's oldest and most renowned art competition—the Schweizer Kunstwettbewerb (Swiss Art Competition). Organised annually by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture since 1899, the exhibition offers insight into the current world of art and architecture in Switzerland, and acts as a valuable index for art professionals and art lovers alike. Each of the awards carries a 25,000 Swiss francs prize.
 

Award ceremony and exhibition running in parallel with Art Basel
The works of the laureates and of all shortlisted participants of the Swiss Art Competition are on view in the Swiss Art Awards 2016 exhibition, conceived by Léa Fluck. Designed by Vécsey Schmidt Architects, the exhibition space opens tonight, June 13 at 7pm, and will mark the beginning of a dense art week in Basel.
 

Swiss Art Awards 2016 laureates

Art
Alexandra Bachzetsis (1974, lives and works in Athens / Basel / Zurich)
Sylvain Croci-Torti (1984, lives and works in Martigny / Lausanne)
Aurélien Gamboni (1979, lives and works in Geneva)
Florian Germann (1978, lives and works in Fuerteventura / Zurich)
Sophie Jung (1982, lives and works in Basel / London)
Jan Kiefer (1979, lives and works in Basel)
Dominique Koch (1983, lives and works in Basel / Paris)
Gabriela Löffel (1972, lives and works in Bern / Geneva)
Reto Pulfer (1981, lives and works in Berlin)

Architecture
Dreier Frenzel (Yves Dreier, 1979, and Eik Frenzel, 1979, live and work in Lausanne)

Critique, edition, exhibition
Benjamin Sommerhalder, Nieves Zines (1977, lives and works in Zurich)
 

Jury
The jury for the Swiss Art Awards is chaired by Nadia Schneider Willen (collection curator Migros Museum, Zurich). Its members are Giovanni Carmine (director Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Switzerland and curator), Julie Enckell Julliard (director at the Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland), Andreas Reuter (sabarchitekten, Basel), Anne-Julie Raccoursier (artist, Lausanne), Anselm Stalder (artist, Basel) and Noah Stolz (curator, producer and critic, Geneva). This year’s advisory experts are Gabriela Mazza and Aldo Nolli (architecture), as well as Alexandra Blättler, Latifa Echakhch and Edit Oderbolz (visual arts).

Journal & publication
Portraits of and interviews with the participants as well as further information about the awards and exhibition are published in the accompanying online journal swissartawards.ch. The Swiss Art Awards 2016 publication, designed by Zurich based Gregor Huber & Ivan Sterzinger and scheduled to launch at the end of the year, will present the laureates’ works and elaborate on this year’s main theme "migration" with essays, statements and interviews.

For press enquiries please contact: media@swissartawards.ch