VANESSA SAFAVI

The pieces presented speak with both humour and gravity about the importance of our bodies and their shapes. Issues of gender, race and sexuality confront the established norms of physicality.

It is within this context that Vanessa challenges our preconceived notions of identity and body aesthetics. Her works can be provocative, sensual, abstract or simply disturbing. Overall, they are an invitation to reflect on our own identity and the way we see each other.

These works point out the reality of our own bodies, they remind us that they are much more than just physical vessels, they are also mirrors of our own history, culture and identity.

Born in Lausanne, Vanessa Safavi studied at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) where she obtained her diploma in visual arts in 2007. In 2018, she resumed her studies at the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), obtaining a master’s degree in 2020. Her work was presented at the Kunsthaus Glarus in Glarus for a first major solo exhibition (2011), followed by monographic presentations in Altkirch, Paris and Basel (2012), São Paulo (2014), Bentheim (2016) and Freiburg (2019). Awarded the Prix Illy in 2012 and the Prix Irène Raymond in 2019, her work is regularly shown in galleries in Berlin, Brussels, Athens, London and Zurich. Numerous artistic residencies will punctuate her career, taking her from Paris to Cape Town, from Johannesburg to New York, from Peru to Heiligenberg, or even to Rome in 2021.