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Foto: Basim Magdy
Aïcha Revellat
Dr. des. Aïcha Revellat is a Swiss-Senegalese art historian born in Basel. She completed her doctorate at eikones – Center for the Theory and History of the Image with the dissertation Fragile Surfaces, Sharp Edges: Form and Orientation in Hannah Villiger’s Practice. She currently teaches as a guest lecturer at the University of Basel and at the Institute Art Gender Nature at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design.
Her research brings together art history, media theory, and the history of science, with a particular focus on photographic and three-dimensional image media, questions of embodiment, perception, and medial instability. She works on post-conceptual and contemporary image practices, including artistic engagements with the African diaspora, and explores the intersections of phenomenology, feminist and queer theory, and image theory. Together with Dennis Jelonnek (DFK Paris), she is editing the bilingual FUNDUS volume Dis/Appearances: Perspectives on Photographic Disappearance, to be published by Distanz.
Coaching offer:
"I am particularly interested in the conceptual and aesthetic questions at the heart of artistic practice. What questions does a work raise? What forms, materials, and methods does it develop? How can it be understood more precisely, situated within broader contexts, and further developed?
As an art historian, I work with image theory, phenomenology, and postcolonial theory. My research focuses on photographic and body-related image practices, political aesthetics, and the relationships between gaze, power, and violence. Another key area of interest is contemporary practices of the African diaspora and the conditions under which images are produced, circulated, and perceived.
In my coaching, I support artists in identifying and articulating the questions, decisions, and tensions that shape their practice. Together, we can further develop projects conceptually, discuss formal and material choices, and examine how a work relates to historical, cultural, and political contexts. Questions of positioning, mediation, and networking can also be part of our conversations.
As a co-founder of Commons Calling, as an author and editor, and through my teaching at FHNW and the University of Basel, I move between art historical research, curatorial work, and the support of artistic processes.
I particularly look forward to working with artists who wish to reflect on and develop their practice through the works themselves, whether from an aesthetic, material, conceptual, or process-oriented perspective."
Languages: German, French, and English
Direct link to the online application portal
Important Note: Applications can only be submitted via the Migros Culture Percentage online application portal. If you do not yet have a login for the application portal, you must create one first before accessing the application or request form.
Foto: Costas Maros
Sabian Baumann
Sabian Baumann (*1962) lives and works in Zurich. Through his art, he offers a multifaceted exploration of identity, the body, and societal value systems, presenting normality as an exception in space and time. Baumann portrays people as complex beings shaped by experience, relationships, biology, materiality, and social influences. Through humor, poetry, contradiction, and dreamlike imagery, his work invites reflection on simultaneity, belonging, and social structures.
Baumann primarily works with drawing, while also creating installations, object-based works, and sculptures. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Fondation Beyeler, the Badischer Kunstverein (Germany), and the Centre Culturel Suisse (France). In 2024, he was part of the conceptual team for the Kunsthaus Zürich exhibition Apropos Hodler, in which he also exhibited. In 2026, his work was featured in In Minor Keys at the Venice Biennale.
Alongside his own artistic practice, Baumann has initiated collaborative, transdisciplinary, and art activist projects addressing queer and sex-positive feminism, gender-inclusive language, and intersectional issues. These include the experimental documentary films Working On It (2008) and Who Owns the Sky? (Wem gehört der Himmel, 2022).
Baumann has received numerous awards, including the Curt and Erna Burgauer Advancement Award (2012) and the Aargau Art Prize (2021). He has served on various juries and committees and taught at Swiss art universities for over twenty years. He is represented by Galerie Mark Müller.
Further information: sabianbaumann.ch
Coaching offer:
“I see mentoring as an open, critical, and trusting exchange. Every collaboration begins with the mentees’ work and projects, as well as their interests, questions, and motivations. At the center are close observation and analysis of the work, open dialogue, active listening, and carefully targeted questions. The aim is to reflect on one’s own decisions, develop solutions, and strengthen an artistic position without limiting experimentation and curiosity.
Drawing on my own work across different media and within a wide range of artistic and institutional contexts, both in independent projects and collaborative formats with other cultural practitioners, I can share different working methods and highlight their respective opportunities and challenges. This includes questions of research, idea development, material selection, form, and dealing with uncertainty or creative dead ends, as well as the practical conditions of artistic work.
If desired, mentoring may also include visiting and discussing exhibitions and events, as well as reading and reflecting on texts.”
Languages: German, English
Direct link to the online application portal
Important Note: Applications can only be submitted via the Migros Culture Percentage online application portal. If you do not yet have a login for the application portal, you must create one first before accessing the application or request form.
Foto: Sebastien Agnetti
Latifa Echakhch
Born in 1974 in El Khnansa (Morocco), Latifa Echakhch lives and works in Vevey, Switzerland.
Driven by a desire to challenge certain prejudices, contradictions, and stereotypes embedded in our society, she isolates and examines materials that symbolize these phenomena.
In 2007, Latifa Echakhch presented her first solo exhibition, À chaque stencil une révolution, at Le Magasin in Grenoble. Since then, her work has been exhibited worldwide in numerous solo exhibitions, including at Kunsthaus Zurich, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Fondazione Memmo in Rome, KIOSK in Ghent, macLYON in Lyon, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Portikus in Frankfurt, the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, MACBA in Barcelona, Fri Art in Fribourg, Frac Champagne-Ardenne in Reims, the Swiss Institute in New York, Tate Modern in London, and many group exhibitions. Her work has also been featured at the Istanbul Biennial, the 54th Venice Biennale, the 11th Sharjah Biennial, the Jerusalem Art Focus Biennial, and Manifesta 7 in Bolzano.
In 2013, Latifa Echakhch received the Marcel Duchamp Prize. Alfred Pacquement, then Director of the Centre Pompidou and President of the jury, described her work as follows:
“Situated between Surrealism and Conceptualism, her work questions the importance of symbols with economy and precision while conveying the fragility of modernism.”
In 2015, Echakhch presented Screen Shot at Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich and received the Zurich Art Prize.
Coaching offer:
"Drawing on several years of teaching experience at institutions in France and Switzerland, including the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, HEAD Geneva, and EDHEA Sierre, as well as participation in numerous award juries, notably the Swiss Art Awards, I bring extensive experience in supporting emerging artists.
My close connection to and deep commitment to the young artistic scene throughout Switzerland have led me to view mentoring as a natural extension of my artistic practice.
My priority is always the work of the emerging artist. I begin by understanding their artistic production, its formulation, coherence, and balance. In both teaching and mentoring, I place myself entirely at the service of the work I encounter. This process also brings me great joy and discovery. I rarely place myself at the center, except when sharing experiences that may be beneficial.
My personal and professional experience enables me to identify areas for refinement, suggest adjustments, or encourage the development of pathways already present in the artist’s practice. I ask many questions and seek to gain a comprehensive understanding of the artistic approach in order to provide informed feedback and validate its uniqueness.
My working method is highly demanding, disciplined, and driven by constant research. A sense of humor allows me to maintain genuine enjoyment, even within highly rigorous creative processes.
This mentorship offers a privileged framework that quickly extends the atmosphere of the studio, allowing for deep engagement with artistic development. I look forward to supporting a young artist committed to this demanding and rewarding process".
Languages: French, English
Direct link to the online application portal
Important Note: Applications can only be submitted via the Migros Culture Percentage online application portal. If you do not yet have a login for the application portal, you must create one first before accessing the application or request form.