Artists in Residence

3 weeks | Interdisciplinary

Flee Project | Research Trip

After having worked on Kenyan music genre Benga and Apulian trance music ritual tarantism, FLEE is currently organizing, in collaboration with Kuwaiti artist Zahed Sultan, comprehensive research on Pearl Divers’ music in the Gulf.

Country of residency: Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates

5 months

Mariam El Nozahy – Ausstellungsraum Klingental

Mariam Elnozahy is a curator and writer based in Cairo. Previously, she curated eight exhibitions at the Townhouse Gallery as well as an exhibition in Jeddah at the Athr Gallery and in London at the Mosaic Rooms. Her project titled ‘Whose Open Society? Understanding Neoliberalism and the Economics of Artistic Production in the Middle East …

Country of residency: Egypt, Switzerland

four weeks | Literature

Joël László | Research Trip

Joël László was born in Zürich in 1982 and lives in Basel, where he studied Middle Eastern Studies and History. He works as a writer, playwright and translator. For the Basel based Lenos publishing house he is currently translating a novel from Arabic to German. His plays include «Lullaby for Baran» that won the audience …

Country of residency: Egypt

Chadi Messmer | Studio Residency

Swiss with Lebanese roots, he’s passionate about music from the Middle East since he’s been a child. Therefore he aims to build bridges between Arabic and Western music. He created the band Menura in 2017 which is a binational Swiss/ Lebanese collaboration. Since then they have been performing and touring all around Lebanon and Switzerland. Chadi is a multifaceted electric and double bass player and also a composer. He regularly plays and tours with numerous bands all around Switzerland and Europe.

Country of residency: Lebanon

Laurence Bonvin | Studio Residency

Laurence Bonvin is an artist working since many years with photography and more recently also with video. She was born in Switzerland and studied at the National School for Photography in Arles, France. Her practice, which has a strong documentary base, has been centered on the transformations of urban peripheries, natural and social landscapes, on …

Country of residency: Egypt

Sonia Kacem │ Studio Residency

Based in Amsterdam and originally from Switzerland and Tunisia, Sonia’s earlier work have been exhibited in Switzerland and internationally since 2011. Also, It has been seen recently in Tilburg “Delirious” the 10th edition of Lustwarande and at Centre d’art Neuchâtel.

Country of residency: Tunisia

Paulo Wirz │ Studio Residency

In 2008 Paulo Wirz arrived in Switzerland for the first time in order to learn German. After studying at the ECAL, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and ZHDK, he decided to move to Geneva where recently he completed the MFA program in contemporary practices at the HEAD and received the Prix “New Heads”. Paulo’s work will be …

Country of residency: Egypt

Abdessamad El Montassir │ Studio Residency- Home Not Alone

Born in 1989, lives and works between Rabat and Boujdour. Abdessamad El Montassir is currently resident fellow at IMéRA, Institut d’études avancées – Aix Marseille Université.

After graduating from the Institut National des Beaux-Arts in Tetouan, Abdessamad El Montassir completed the MA Artistic and Esthetic Education at the École Normale Supérieure in Meknès, for which he received the award of excellence.

Country of residency: Switzerland

Aly Khamees │ Studio Residency

On a regional and international level, Khamees started to take part in different productions by various choreographers such as Zosia Jo, Laila Soliman, Ruud Gielens, Sandrine Maisonnneuve and Shaymaa Shoukry. In 2018 I created my first own Work (The Absentee) that was presented in “2B continued” and “D-CAF” festivals in Egypt. At the moment Khamees is developing his own style that he calls “Bullet and knife” which is inspired from the local Egyptian street dance in dialogue with contemporary dance power movement.

Country of residency: Switzerland

3 months

Ali Tnani │Studio Residency

A leading practitioner in the field of conceptual art, Tnani is known for his multimedia installation work examining social issues in post-revolutionary Tunisia. With a practice that draws on installation, drawing, and photography, he explores the question of erasure and the negative in narratives of traces, memory and history in an era of hyper-connectivity.

Country of residency: Switzerland