Sarah Burkhalter – författare

Swiss artist Silvie Defraoui, born in 1935, is a pioneer of video art and art education in Switzerland. Beginning in 1975, she worked in collaboration with her husband Chérif Defraoui (1932–1994). Together they developed the Archives du Futur, a reflection on images, their status, and potential for memory and the future. The two artists also founded the legendary Atelier Médias Mixtes at Geneva’s École supérieure des Beaux-Arts (now HEAD—Genève). Since 1995, Defraoui has pursued a practice using various forms of expression, including projection, installation, ceramics, and serigraphy.This book is part of the new On Words series that presents conversations with contemporary women artists. Through them, readers come to understand the sources from which they draw inspiration, the themes in their work, and their view of the world. Edited by Julie Enckell, Federica Martini, and Sarah Burkhalter and bringing together a wide range of viewpoints, the On Words series adds a new narrative to polyphonic art history as told by those who actively shape it.Text in English and French.

Artist and filmmaker Pauline Julier works with the moving image as a means of questioning. With her dual education in political sciences and photography, she has developed a unique approach that leads to a visual dialogue between scientific narratives and ways of representing collective knowledge. In this interview, Julier reflects on a series of her cinematic works and installations and explores the transdisciplinary methods and contexts of visual engagement that characterise her artistic practice.On Words is a collection of interviews with leading contemporary women artists. In conversation with Julie Enckell Julliard, Federica Martini, and Sarah Burkhalter, they speak about the sources from which they draw inspiration, themes in their work, and their view of the world. The series brings together a wide range of viewpoints and adds a new narrative to polyphonic art history as told by those who actively shape it.Text in English and French.

Renée Levi is known for her flamboyant, fast, honest, and direct painting. Trained as an architect and visual artist, she often creates monumental, installation-like works, which are always adapted to the spatial context in which they are located. In this interview, Levi talks about the origins of her artistic intention, the place she has conquered in the art world, and her visual language that gradually evolves like a quest for freedom.On Words is a collection of interviews with leading contemporary women artists. In conversation with Julie Enckell Julliard, Federica Martini, and Sarah Burkhalter, they speak about the sources from which they draw inspiration, themes in their work, and their view of the world. The series brings together a wide range of viewpoints and adds a new narrative to polyphonic art history as told by those who actively shape it.Text in English and German.

This latest volume in the On Words series is dedicated to Mai-Thu Perret, one of Switzerland’s most recognised contemporary artists. In conversation with Sarah Burkhalter, she talks about her personal fascinations, the randomness of glazing ceramics, and her love of reading. Burkhalter and Perret also explore artistic and intellectual means of including the importance of motherhood into art discourse without being reduced to that role.Born in Geneva in 1976, and of Franco-Vietnamese heritage, Perret combines ceramics, installation, film, sculpture, painting, and textiles in her practice, which is based on an original affinity for writing and storytelling. She draws on the artistic and historic genealogies of the avant-garde as well as on Zen and feminist literature to create objects, spaces, and performances in which anthropology and political history give rise to intriguing heterotopias.Text in English and French.

Isabelle Cornaro, based in Paris and Geneva, holds degrees in art history and visual arts. She has a strong interest in experimental cinema and devotes herself to the narrative, symbolic, and economic origins of things. In her work she assumes an anthropologist-type manner to investigate people's seemingly fixated attachment to emotionally charged, even fetishised objects, creating large stage installations and short movies.This book is part of the new On Words series that presents conversations with contemporary women artists. Through them, readers come to understand the sources from which they draw inspiration, the themes in their work, and their view of the world. Edited by Julie Enckell, Federica Martini, and Sarah Burkhalter and bringing together a wide range of viewpoints, the On Words series adds a new narrative to polyphonic art history as told by those who actively shape it. Text in English and French.