Livio Bernasconi

Livio Bernasconi (*1932, Muralto) studied at the Brera Academy in Milan. Bernasconi began his artistic career with a style of neo-realist imprint, and then gradually moved on to abstract painting. Bernasconi’s artistic practice is characterized by a long and varied pictorial research focused on form and color, where the sign remains self-referential, the pictorial writing precise and depersonalized. His works have been exhibited in different contexts and linguistic regions of Switzerland, such as the Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Museum Villa dei Cedri, the Aargauer Kunsthaus, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen.

Alan Bogana

Alan Bogana (*1979, Faido) is a Swiss artist, born in Ticino and currently based in Geneva. Over the years, he has developed a multifaceted art practice involving installations, sculptures, time-based media, virtual reality and holography. His research focuses on the real and speculative behavior of light as well as on the emergence of organic shapes and patterns by means of technological processes. His works delve into the mediating roles that technoscience cultures play in our perceptions, in our understanding of reality and in the construction of the notion of nature. He completed a Fine Arts Diploma with honors at the Geneva University of Art and Design in 2009 and a specialization in artistic research methodologies at the Zürich University of Art and Design in 2013. Bogana has won the Bally Artist Prize in 2018 and the Pax Art Award in 2019.

Aline D’Auria

Aline d’Auria (*1982, Lugano) lives and works in Chiasso, Switzerland. After earning her first degrees from the Ecole d’Arts Visuels in Vevey and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. She also holds a diploma as a Designer, specialized in video, from the HEAD in Geneva. Since 2009 she has been part of the Swiss association for contemporary photography near., and in 2015 she co-founded the cultural association Grande Velocità, headquartered at Spazio Lampo in Chiasso, where she collaborates as a curator. Her work questions the idea of belonging and displacement. She presented her multichannel video installation We are all going home at the Biennale dell’immagine di Chiasso (2019), Bienne Festival of Photography and at the Algae Festival Como (2021). Taken from this last work is the homonymous book freshly published and edited by Artphilein Editions.

Luisa Figini

Luisa Figini (*1954, Mendrisio) studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Bourges, (F) (1981-83), at the Haute Ecole d’art et Design of Geneva (1998-2002) and at the University of Rovereto-Trento (I) (2008-09), now she lives and works in Ticino. Since the '80s he has been developing an artistic research characterized by an intimate relationship with matter and by experimentations with different media such as sculpture, objects, multimedia installations, articulated around three fundamental axioms: the object, the body, the relationship. Figini has exhibited in Switzerland and abroad in solo and group shows in important museums and exhibition venues such as the Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano, the Biennale dell’Immagine in Chiasso, the Museo Vincenzo Vela in Ligornetto and the Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna in Ascona; the Kunstmuseum of Olten, the Musée des Beaux-Arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Musée Jurassien des Arts of Moutier, the Palais de l’Athénée of Geneva, the Villa Bernasconi of Lancy-Geneva, the Centro Culturale Svizzero of Milan.

Luca Frei

Luca Frei (*1976, Lugano) lives and works in Malmö, Sweden. His interdisciplinary practice includes installation and performance, as well as exhibition and graphic design. He has had solo and group exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Glarus, the Bonner Kunstverein, the Malmö Konsthall, the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Bildmuseet in Umeå and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, among others. His works have been exhibited at the then Museo Cantonale d’Arte in Lugano, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Tate Liverpool, The Drawing Room in London, M HKA in Antwerp, CentroCentro in Madrid, and Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao. He has also participated in several biennials, including the International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, the Cairo Biennial, the Prague Biennial and the Istanbul Biennial.

Giulio Gamba

Born in Ticino in 1997, Giulio Gamba lives and works in Zurich, where he completed his masters at the ZhDK in 2021. His painting practice finds its origins in the graffifi, to more recent works on framed and unframed canvas, thus becoming more tridimensional. He exhibited in various contexts, such as Carì Art Safari (2021), Ca’ Rezzonico Lugano (2019), “Zu Besuch” Group Exhibition at ZHDK (2019).

Lucas Herzig

Through his artistic production, Lucas Herzig (*1988, Zurich) approaches topics such as hybrid identities and the creation of new myths. He often uses archaeological aesthetics, thus going back in time to produce something in the present. One of the main characteristics of his work is the creation of situations that cannot be clearly placed in history, thus raising questions about the categorization, attribution and belonging of these artifacts. His works have been exhibited: Die Diele, Lokal-Int, larada, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Sonnenstube, MASI.

Maya Hottarek

Maya Hottarek (*1990, Chironico) lives and works in Biel/Bienne and Basel. She studied at the University of applied Sciences Bern and Institut Kunst Basel. Her artistic work interacts with various media, mostly with ceramic and sound, and usually revolves around a specific topic. A fundamental interest of the artist is to articulate the complex interactions between the individual, society and the economy, and trying to relate these themes to our basic needs, by asking ourselves how the individual, given all of the possibilities that are given to them, can deal with their own existence? Her works function as characters in all-compassing installations. Inspired by everyday life I attempt, through various methods, to filter out its simplicity. The artist tries, through various techniques, to filter the simplicity of everyday life. Her goal is to open up to new realities by questioning the common notion of perception. Her works have been exhibited in different institutionsi, among them Espace Libre Bienne, Lokal Int, CAN Neuchatel, Stiftung Binz39, Sonnenstube, Centre Pasquarte.

Kaspar Ludwig

Kaspar Ludwig (Nuremberg, 1989) received his bachelor’s degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara and his master’s degree from the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel. In 2020 he is a finalist of the Swiss Art Awards and in 2019 he wins the Helvetia Art Prize; in 2022 he will be in residence in Tokyo with Atelier Mondial. Exhibitions include: I always do shadows to deform myself, Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano, 2020 (solo show); The Sunrise Sings, Tarmak22, Gstaad, 2020; Far from comfortable, Helvetia Art Prize, Liste, Basel, 2019 (solo show); Dogs only fly in 3rd class, Nicolas Krupp, Basel, 2019 (solo show); Insonne, Sonnenstube, Lugano, 2019; Solidi Platoonici, larada, Locarno, 2017.

Lisa Lurati

Drawing from a broad palette of techniques, ranging from photography, cyanotype and drawing, to sculpture and video, Lisa Lurati’s (*1989, Lugano) work manages to occupy a very particular space. A space, where pure aesthetics mingle with the deeply personal, where existentialmeditations are thrown into the mix with the absurd and trivial, all the while keeping up a deep sense of humility and wonder towards the outside and inside world. Through her work she is keeping meaning and references in a constant state of flux, never quite revealing one single interpretation.Is she examining the relationship between us humans, globalized capitalism,and our effect on planet earth? Is she’s commenting on the absurdity of a little plastic shopping bag, in theface of eternity? Or else, is she just playing around, in the hopes making some sense out ofthis whole mess? Either way, this ambiguity is what makes her work all the more seductive.By eschewing the trap of simplistic finger pointing, she makes room for multifacetedinterpretations and discussions. Her works have been exhibited at the Centre d’art Contemporaine Yverdon, Photophorum Pasquart, la rada, Sonnenstube.

Aldo Mozzini

Aldo Mozzini’s (*1956, Locarno) creations, often made from simple materials - be they objects, installations or photographic series - often reference urban situations and urban themes. The artist investigates the primary experience of the human being, the body, the space and objects. His view is not affirming, calculating or cynical, but rather a critical reflection of the present with humor and self-irony, sometimes producing veiled caricatures. The resulting estrangement is not an end in itself, but rather a hint of the questioning of material reality that surrounds. His works have been exhibited in different contexts, among them Helmhaus Zürich, Castello di Jesago (MI), Kunstkammer Schlieren, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Kunsthaus Grenchen, Vebikus Kunsthalle Schaffhausen.

Flavio Paolucci

Flavio Paolucci’s (*1934, Torre) artistic practice has its roots in the act of observing and listening. The rural culture of Val di Blenio, where he was born in 1934, represents the red line of his works and has significantly influenced his production. Paolucci’s resarch today focuses on the use of paper, wood, soot and bronze. His works have been exhibited in many institutions and in many different contexts, among which we can find: Museo Civico Villa dei Cedri, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Musée Jenisch, and Musée cantonal des beaux-arts.

Gregorio Pedroli

Gregorio Pedroli (*1951, Sorengo) tudied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel from 1968 to 1970 and from 1973 to 1977 at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where he obtained his degree in painting. He lives in Sorengo and works in Lugano. His latest solo exhibitions are: Museo Cantonale d’Arte (Ala Est) in 2004, Museo d’Arte Mendrisio in 2008 and Fondation Louis Moret in Martigny in 2013.

Noemi Pfister

Noemi Pfister (*1991, Locarno) was born and raised in Locarno. Between 2014 and 2017, she studied visual arts at HEAD in Geneva, specializing in painting. In 2018, she moved to Basel, where she still lives and works and where she obtained a master’s degree in Contemporary Art Practice at HGK in 2019. After her graduation, she co-founded PALAZZINA, an off-space and artists’ house in Basel, where she lives and organizes exhibitions collectively with other artists. Since 2020, she has been co-curator and jury member of the PLATTFORM Prize. Through the mediums of painting, drawing and sculpture, Pfister questions the representation of the figure of the outsider, the marginalized, the one who is considered different.

Giorgia Piffaretti

Giorgia Piffaretti (*1989, Mendrisio) is a visual artist currently based in Amsterdam, where she graduated with a Master of Film in the program “Artistic Research in and Through Cinema” in 2019. Her work has a particular focus on personal archival praxis, starting from the observation of everyday elements. Objects, pictures, drawings, moving images, etc., become starting points to unfold multiple narratives and perspectives, questioning the way in which meaning is created. In this sense, her work aims to re-contextualise the meaning of singular elements and inscribe them on a larger scale, thus creating connections between the individual and the collective. She explores these topics through video essays, multimedia installations, and lecture performances. Moving across fine arts and film, she has participated in several international exhibitions and film festivals. Giorgia Piffaretti was recently selected by the city of Lugano (in collaboration with SKK and Atelier Belgrad) to attend a residency in Belgrade.

Valentina Pini

Valentina Pini (*1982, Ticino) lives and works in Zürich. Fascinated with reaction and evolution of materials, alchemy and phenomenological experience, her art practice is structured around the perception of matter. In her own way, with a mix of humour and rigour she plays with illusions and realities. Her sculptures show delicate and intricate visions of seemingly peaceful and irrelevant objects. Moving on a fine line between the recognisable and the indeterminate, her installations enable the observers to marvel thanks to their transformative power, that turns everyday objects to new unlikely purposes. Her work intertwines sculpture, installation and video and it falls somewhere between chemistry and magic, where the creation is not confessed flagrantly but disclosed subtly. Her work was recently showed at the Swiss Arts Awards 2021 and in November 2021 she will take part in the Media Arts Biennial, Santiago, Chile.

Viola Poli

Viola Poli (*1992, Brusino Arsizio), was raised in Lugano, studies first pedagogy and then art at HEAD in Geneva. After a three-year period focusing on sculpture and installation, with an exchange semester in Leipzig, she completes a master in contemporary art practices. Industrial, urban and everyday space have been a central part of her artistic research since the beginning of her career, but it is especially during the last two years that her interest in these places begins to change, widening her point of view and shifting the focus to organisms resistant to human domination and to all forms of parallel life infinitely interconnected. Viola’s work is an encounter of heterogeneous materials, free to continue their cycle of transformation, almost imperceptible, drying, molding, contaminating, transforming. Between fiction and reality, a certain ambiguity is created about the material and the surrounding environment: a pre- or post-apocalyptic environment, a latent temporality or fragments of these imaginary places as relics of a past time.

Pascal Schwaighofer

Pascal Schwaighofer (*1976, Locarno) lives and works in Zurich (CH), Ithaca (USA), and Marseille (FR). He graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Cornell University, writing a dissertation on the politico-philosophical implications of the swarm, network and multitude, iconically embedded in the “honeybee metaphor.” Schwaighofer’s artistic practice focuses on metaphors and analogies of apparently unrelated narratives, politics, economies and aesthetics. His works have been exhibited in several institutions across Europe, such as the Center of Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, (BJ); Kunstmuseum Lucerne, (CH); MAGA museum, Gallarate, (IT); Aargauer Kunsthaus, (CH); Kolumba Museum, Cologne, (DE); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, (FR); Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, (CH).

Miguela Tamo

Miguela Tamo (*1962, Poschiavo) was born and raised in Poschiavo, and studied sculpture and painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. She now lives and works in Basel. Her artistic practice focuses mainly on drawing and sculpture, the latter understood as a three-dimensional intervention that interferes and redefines space and vice versa. During her career, Tamo has also ventured into graphic projects, photography, video, and painting. During the last ten years she has worked on numerous installations and sculptures in clay and porcelain, materials that fascinate her because of their similarities with drawing: every movement or pressure of the hands or feet leaves an imprint. Always fascinated by large formats, while working with clay and porcelain she has tried to overcome the obstacle of the small format imposed by these materials by modeling hundreds and thousands of pieces that once assembled would create installations and sculptures of large dimensions. Sensuality, precision, ambiguity, humor and poetry are fundamental aspects of Miguela Tamo’s works. Her works have been exhibited in different contexts, among them Kunsthaus Langenthal, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Salone del Brunelleschi (IT).

Vera Trachsel

Vera Trachsel (*1988, Bern) grew up between Emmental and Ticino. She studied Vermittlung von Kunst und Design at HKB Bern (BA), where she also completed a master’s degree in Contemporary Arts Practice in 2015. Since 2015, she has been living and working in Biel/Bienne. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions north and south of the Alps, including: Krone-Coronne (2021); Daniele Agostini Gallery (2020); Milieu (2018); Sonnenstube (2017); la rada (2017); Lokal-int (2015). In 2016 her work was awarded the Kunstverein Prize, in 2018 the Manor Prize of the Canton of Ticino, and in 2021 the Aeschlimann-Corti Stipendium.

Lugano, Villa Ciani
11.12.2021 — 09.01.2022

Exhibition booklet

La Regionale – Mostra d ’arte della Svizzera italiana is an initiative of the association Arte Contemporanea per la Svizzera italiana – ACXSI, composed by Daniele Agostini, Giada Olivotto, Sibilla Panzeri and Sébastien Peter.

La Regionale – Mostra d ’arte della Svizzera italiana is coproduced with Città di Lugano.

For more informations, please contact ACXSI directly at: info@laregionale.ch

Organisation:
Associazione ACXSI
Via Agostino Soldati 4
CH—6900 Lugano

Administrators:
Daniele Agostini
Giada Olivotto
Sibilla Panzeri
Sébastien Peter

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Lugano, 2021

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