INGRID WILDI MERINO

NOMINATED BY THE OFFICE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART NORWAY (OCA)

Ingrid Wildi Merino (b. 1963, Santiago de Chile) lives and works in Santiago de Chile. Having migrated to Switzerland in 1981 she studied at the University of Fine Arts in Zurich (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zurich) and received her postgraduate in Visual Arts at the University of Geneva, (Haute Ecole d’Art et Design Genève). Since 2005 she has been professor at the University of Art and Design Geneva (Haute Ecole d’Art et Design Genève), and since 2011 is professor of Master of Visual Arts at the same University. As professor at the University of Geneva her work researches and explores the problems linked to migrations, memory, identity, dislocation, social and cultural movement.

In 2005 she represented Switzerland at the Swiss pavilion for the 51st Venice Biennale, 2006 Telefonica Buenos Aires, 2007 L’oeil-écran ou la nouvelle image, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg. In 2009 at the 7th Biennale Mercosul – Invited by Chile, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 2010 Museo de la Solaridad Salvador Allende. 2011 Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Aargau, Switzerland, 2013 Centro Wilfredo Lam, La Havana, Cuba. She received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the national art award of Switzerland. From 2007 and 2011 she has been the author and curator of the exhibition project Dislocación.

“From the window of my apartment the landscape looked like a postcard, like a scene from a Nordic fiction film. An unreal image, a fiction or a model for a movie scene. Every time I got up in the morning and looked out from my window at the landscape, I couldn’t believe that the majestic mountains were there all the time, imposing themselves on my gaze. It may seem ridiculous for hectic modern urban life, but the presence of the great snow-capped mountains of Longyearbyen made me observe every single movement I did inside the apartment with much more calm. A context of such calm and absolute silence changes our perception of ourselves. One sees oneself looking out and the landscape returns the gaze in turn.”

- Ingrid Wildi Merino