art-werk is a non-profit association for the promotion and diffusion of art committed to contemporary social and environmental concerns. The association creates exhibitions and an open educational program, produces and offers free access to a regular podcast, articles and a newsletterfocusing on the connections between art, science and societal issues.
Art is a powerful vector of reflection and openness. Whether by highlighting contrasts or dissonances, by humour or tragedy, artists often poetically propose new perspectives on fundamental matters. Aware that artistic and cultural production offers modes of expression and strategies capable of bringing intellectual and emotional curiosity to a wide audience, the art-werk team makes visible the links between contemporary art and topics reflecting the existential challenges of our time. In this way our activities deal with questions of identity, the human relationship to nature, technology and time. In this perspective, we seek to bring works to the forefront and allow spectators, participants and readers to forge links, to question themselves and to wonder.
Based in Geneva, art-werk is made up of an interdisciplinary team and a committee of volunteers: art historians, artists, scientists, computer scientists and human rights specialists. The association is looking for ways of mediation to share a sharp vision of contemporary art with a public of different age and sociocultural background. Through its nomadic activities and a multilingual approach (French, German and English), the association also participates in promoting artistic exchanges between the Swiss linguistic regions and neighbouring countries. The strong ties that unite art-werk with the city of Berlin, where part of the team works, allow the opening of a network of artists, academics and actors of the associative world and connect two complementary cities in terms of international organizations and multicultural artistic practices.