Artist: Pierre-Henri Wicomb
Discipline: music
During his residency at Chateau Mercier in Switzerland, South African Composer Pierre Henri Wicomb will collaborate with Swiss ensembles Ums n’Jip, Potage du Jour and Kontrabassduo. The duo Ums n’Jip will be performing works by Wicomb as part of their ‘Africa Project’. In his collaborations Wicomb seeks to explore group dynamics in improvised music and the balance between the musical goals of the composer and the improvising artist.
Host: Chateau Mercier, Sierre
Dates: November, 2011

Artist: Celia Sidler
Discipline: visual arts
The focus of Celia Sidler's work is the aesthetics and influences of the food and publicity industries. The effects of globalisation on local markets and the role of publicity in influencing consumption are ever-present in her projects, which typically involve found objects. Whilst in South Africa, she will focus mostly on new inspirations drawn from her encounters with new people, food, animals, and material objects.
Host: artSPACE, Durban
Dates: August - October, 2011

Artist: Alan Bogana
Discipline: visual arts
"My multidisciplinary art practice is based primarily on sculptures, videos and web platforms. The technological and the utopian imagination, as well as the process of idealization, are the main thematic nodes around which my works, shown as installations, unfold in space and time."
Host: blank projects, Cape Town
Dates: July - August, 2011

Artist: Joëlle Flumet
Discipline: visual arts
"I very often use objects as a starting point to talk about the individual and society," says Flumet, of Geneva. 'Broken Bed', the title of an installation she developed during her residency, will be exhibited at Co/Mix, a new addition to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. 'Broken Bed' exposes the gap between individual aspiration and the corrupted economic game.
Host: blank projects, Cape Town
Dates: March – July, 2011

Artist: Ronan Skillen
Discipline: music
"I want to focus on collaborations with musicians in Basel, Zürich and Bern, furthering musical connections with Jan Galega, Saadet Türköz and establishing new musical collaborations with bands and individual musicians around Switzerland. My focus will be to play as much as possible, learn, share and record as much of the music as I am able while I'm there," says the multi-instrumentalist.
Host: Jan Galega Brönniman, Basel
Dates: March – May, 2011

Artist: Joy Frempong
Discipline: music
"The main thing for me will be to collect impressions, sounds and stories of a variety of people - or animals - who live in South Africa. I want to work on a new album that will be inspired by field sounds recorded on the trip," says Joy Frempong. The Zurich-based vocalist will also play a series of gigs in Southern Africa, performing songs from her debut solo album, "First Box Then Walk".
Host: Tau, Johannesburg
Dates: February – March, 2011

Artist: Adi Flück
Discipline: music
Since 2003, Berne-based Adi Flück has engineered live gigs and studio sound for artists and bands around the world, including Oy, Filewile and the Dead Brothers, among others. In South Africa he will engineer shows by Joy Frempong, 340ml and EJ Von Lyrik, and also host workshops on live engineering, home-studio recording, CD mastering and vinyl cutting.
Host: Grenville Williams, High Voltage Entertainment, Cape Town
Dates: February – March, 2011

Artist: Peter Aerschmann
Discipline: visual arts
Berne-based Peter Aerschmann is an artist specialising in interactive video installations. Some of his recent works illustrate a kind of fictional modern city life in the 21st century. During his residency in South Africa he will exhibit a new work during the Infecting the City festival in Cape Town.
Partner organisation: a word of art, Cape Town / VANSA, Johannesburg
Dates: January – May, 2011

Artist: Vanessa Safavi
Discipline: visual arts
Vanessa Safavi, of Lausanne, is a visual artist whose work frequently brings together references and materials from opposite cultures and fields. She will use her residency to explore the ‘different’ worlds inhabited by South Africans post-Apartheid and also to travel within the region.
Partner organisation: blank projects, Cape Town
Dates: January – March, 2011

Artist: Jan_Henri Booyens
Discipline: visual arts
Jan-Henri Booyens will use his residency to produce a series of arge to medium scale abstract oil paintings alongside photographic and installation material concerned with geological and geographic questions and concerns.
Partner organisation: IAAB, Basel
Dates: January - March, 2011

Artist: TIKA
Discipline: visual arts
TIKA, who was born in Switzerland but now moves frequently between Zurich, Berlin and Rio de Janeiro, will use her residency in Cape Town to paint murals, set up her solo exhibition at a word of art gallery and then take a road trip. She is interested in exploring social relations in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Partner organisation: a word of art, Cape Town
Dates: January – March, 2011

Artist: Walo Deuber
Discipline: film
Walo Deuber wishes to dive into an African society and culture that was once the environment of his late father, a man with whom he had only fleeting contact. His research will inform the making of a documentary film that will reinvent his father.
Partner organisation: N/A
Dates: November - December, 2010

Artist: Lerato Shadi
Discipline: visual/performance art
Lerato Shadi is a visual/performance artist whose work has been described as “involving a high level of physical commitment”. Her poignant work has earned kudos from Art South Africa, who in 2009 selected her as a “Bright Young Thing”, and the New Museum in New York, which included her in its “Younger Than Jesus” artist directory in 2009.
Partner organisation: PROGR, Bern
Dates: October – December, 2010

Artist: Denis Handschin
Discipline: interdisciplinary
“My works are mostly site-specific, conceptual; they can be objects, installations, actions or performances,” says Denis Handschin. Being based in Johannesburg, and close to the Cradle of Humankind and the surrounding mines will allow him the opportunity to explore his interests in archaeology and biology.
Partner organisation: Main Street Life, Johannesburg
Dates: October, 2010 – March, 2011

Artist: EJ Von Lyrik & Grenville Williams
Discipline: music
The artist-producer duo spent a one-month reisdency in Berne, working alongside some of the Swiss musicians, producers and sound engineers involved in the Rogue State Alliance project. Their stay focused on the studio and technical aspects of music-making.
Partner organisation: Schlachthaus Theatre, Berne
Dates: August - September, 2010

Artist: Breeze Yoko
Discipline: film/visual arts
In Basel, Breeze researched and documented the local youth culture - including graffiti writing and skateboarding, which he hoped to compare with similar youth culture interests in South Africa. This was to form part of a film and photography project 'Worlds Apart'.
Partner organisation: Focus 10/Werkraum Warteck, Basel
Dates: June - September, 2010

Artist: Togara Muzanenhamo
Discipline: poetry
Muzanenhamo used his residency to work on his second collection of poems, the follow-up to 'Spirit Poems', for which he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Alderburg prize.
Partner organisation: Château de Lavigny, Vaud
Dates: June - July, 2010

Artist: Rattex
Discipline: music
The main purpose of Rattex's residency was to establish creative networks, but he also performed several live gigs with Berne-based group Filewile,with whom he previously collaborated in 2009.
Partner organisation: N/A (hosted in Berne by Filewile)
Dates: May - July, 2010

Artist: Sylvie Cachin
Discipline: film
Documentary filmmaker Sylvie Cachin came to South Africa following the creation of her first full-length film, 'Claudette'. She used her residency to work on a part fiction/part documentary film tentatively titled 'Goddesses'.
Partner organisation: N/A
Dates: January - July, 2010

Artist: Leonora van Staden
Discipline: visual arts
Leonora was involved in the curation and exhibition of several comics during the Fumetto international comic festival in Lucerne. She also exhibited her current work at the art space Detektiv Bureau.
Partner organisation: Fumetto Festival, Lucerne
Dates: March - May, 2010

Artist: Michael Pelzel
Discipline: music
Organist Michael Pelzel kept himself busy with an industrious schedule of lectures and workshops, as well as meeting with leading South African composers, while at the same time working on the composition of a symphonic orchestra piece.
Partner organisation: UCT, Cape Town, and the Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg
Dates: March - May, 2010

Artist: Irene Hug
Discipline: visual arts
Hug, who considers urban spaces her playground, prepared an installation with wall-painting, photographic posters, letter objects, and billboards during her residency in South Africa. Her work is concerned with systems of representation, and pays close attention to the visual presentation of written texts.
Partner organisation: blank projects, Cape Town
Dates: January - March, 2010