Denise Bertschi is a doctoral researcher and artist at Arts of Sciences Laboratory at EPFL Lausanne. Her artistic research is located at the intersection of visual culture, architecture and history. She critically
investigates not only archives, but landscapes, the built environment and their colonial entanglements, specifically as related to Switzerland’s role in extraeuropean expansion. Her academic and artistic work takes the form of video installations, book publications and films and raises questions around cultural myths, such as Swiss neutrality.
In 2020, Denise Bertschi was awarded the Manor Art Prize at the Aargauer Kunsthaus. In 2019 and 2022, she was awarded the Most Beautiful Swiss Book award for her monographs. Her work is widely exhibited at the CCS Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, the Swiss National Museum in Zürich, the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Artsonje in Seoul, Artivist in Johannesburg and the LACA Los Angeles. She was previously a Getty Research Summer Fellow (Los Angeles) and artist in residence with Pro Helvetia and La Becque. She has published several monographs entitled State Fiction. The Gaze of the Swiss Neutral Mission in the Korean DMZ (Centre de la Photographie Gen.ve, 2021), Strata. Mining Silence (Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020) and her latest book, the co-edited volume Unearthing Traces. Dismantling the imperialist entanglements of archives, landscapes and the built environment (EPFL Press, 2023).
https://www.denisebertschi.ch/
investigates not only archives, but landscapes, the built environment and their colonial entanglements, specifically as related to Switzerland’s role in extraeuropean expansion. Her academic and artistic work takes the form of video installations, book publications and films and raises questions around cultural myths, such as Swiss neutrality.
In 2020, Denise Bertschi was awarded the Manor Art Prize at the Aargauer Kunsthaus. In 2019 and 2022, she was awarded the Most Beautiful Swiss Book award for her monographs. Her work is widely exhibited at the CCS Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, the Swiss National Museum in Zürich, the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Artsonje in Seoul, Artivist in Johannesburg and the LACA Los Angeles. She was previously a Getty Research Summer Fellow (Los Angeles) and artist in residence with Pro Helvetia and La Becque. She has published several monographs entitled State Fiction. The Gaze of the Swiss Neutral Mission in the Korean DMZ (Centre de la Photographie Gen.ve, 2021), Strata. Mining Silence (Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2020) and her latest book, the co-edited volume Unearthing Traces. Dismantling the imperialist entanglements of archives, landscapes and the built environment (EPFL Press, 2023).
https://www.denisebertschi.ch/
DENISE BERTSCHI
ARTIST PROJECT:
exhibition artist / laboratory speaker
artist project:
laboratory session:
Swiss Coloniality – Unearthing its (in)visibilities
