The Institute
Istituto Svizzero acts as an interdisciplinary platform bringing together artistic and scientific research. Established in Rome, Milan and Palermo, it is dedicated to strengthening connections both between Switzerland and Italy, as well as internationally. Istituto Svizzero offers residency programmes to emerging artists and researchers who wish to contribute to the future of visual and performing arts, literature, architecture, human, social and natural sciences. It also offers Senior Fellowships to established artists and academics to create a cross-disciplinary and intergenerational conversation within the lively community of Villa Maraini, in the heart of Rome. The Institute seeks to stimulate innovative ideas in the artistic and scientific research through a public programme that brings together people and expertise for initiatives such as exhibitions, conferences, concerts, performances, workshops and Summer Schools. Active since 1947, Istituto Svizzero is at the forefront of the global discourse on art, science and society. Committed to the promotion of forward-thinking projects, experimental practices and excellence in research, Istituto Svizzero runs both virtual and physical events to envision new paths and look beyond the boundaries of disciplines.

Rome
Istituto Svizzero enjoys an exceptional location in the heart of the Italian capital, housed in an eclectic style villa built in 1905 by Emilio Maraini, an entrepreneur from Canton Ticino working in the sugar business. The villa and its grounds stand on an artificial hill, a former dump for waste materials, offering a panoramic view of the city from one Rome’s historic districts in the immediate proximity of the Spanish Steps and Villa Borghese.

History
In 1947 Carolina Maraini-Sommaruga, Emilio Maraini’s widow (1853−1916), bequeathed her property to the Swiss Confederation. This generous donor wished to ensure the continuation and development of the hospitality that she and her husband had offered to young artists and researchers. Villa Maraini thus came to house a foundation at the service of the arts and sciences as well as fostering relations between Switzerland and Italy. Villa Maraini has formed an integral part of Switzerland’s international network of academies and institutes of art and research located in Rome ever since 1948.

Milan
Since 1997, the Milanese premises of Istituto Svizzero have served as a platform for Swiss art and culture in the capital city of the region of Lombardy, the nerve centre of the Italian economy, with a particularly dynamic role in the fields of creation and innovation. Located in the proximity of Piazza Cavour, Istituto Svizzero occupies a historical building of the 1950s that also houses the Swiss Consulate, the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in Italy and various associations, constituting an authentic Swiss enclave in the heart of Milan. Its programme includes exhibitions, conferences, concerts and meetings, always with the intent of fostering artistic and scientific exchange between Switzerland and Italy.

Mission

Team

Board of Directors

Partners

The Library

Identity

Mission
Istituto Svizzero supports and promotes Swiss research, art and creation in Italy through an original and stimulating programme of events as well as residencies in Italy. It makes an active contribution to scientific and artistic exchange between Switzerland and Italy.

Its mission consists in:

  • offering young artists and scientists the opportunity to continue and develop their research and activities in Italy
  • creating and developing networks of artistic and scientific relations and collaboration between Switzerland and Italy
  • promoting Swiss education, research, innovation and artistic creation in Italy

In the field of science, the Istituto Svizzero offers young researchers from universities and institutes of higher education the opportunity to develop their research projects and to create contacts and networks of relations with the academic and scientific world in Italy. It fosters exchange between Swiss and Italian institutions, organizes and hosts scientific conferences and seminars, and provides an independent research centre of excellence in the Roman and Italian context.

In the field of the arts, the Istituto Svizzero provides a platform for young Swiss artists and develops a resolutely contemporary, multidisciplinary and forward-looking programme of events.
It fosters collaboration between Swiss and Italian cultural institutions, and supports its resident artists and researchers in the dissemination of their work and the development of their networks of contacts.

Istituto Svizzero is part of the Pro Helvetia international network together with the Swiss cultural centres in Paris and New York, and the branches in Johannesburg, Cairo, New Delhi and Moscow. It also belongs to the Swissnex network, which plays an active part in the fields of innovation, education and culture, especially through the premises in Shanghai and San Francisco.

Team
The Istituto Svizzero team can be contacted at the following addresses:

Director
Joëlle Comé
direzione@istitutosvizzero.it

Head Curator
Gioia Dal Molin
gioia.dalmolin@istitutosvizzero.it

Head of Science, Research, and Innovation
Maria Böhmer
maria.boehmer@istitutosvizzero.it

Administrator
Stephan Berger
stephan.berger@istitutosvizzero.it

Assistant to the Director
Elena Catuogno
elena.catuogno@istitutosvizzero.it

Chief Operating Officer/Public Programmes
Paolo Caravello
paolo.caravello@istitutosvizzero.it

Production and Management Milan
Claudia Buraschi
claudia.buraschi@istitutosvizzero.it

Head of Communications
Teodora Pasquinelli
teodora.pasquinelli@istitutosvizzero.it

Communications
Valeria Dellisanti
valeria.dellisanti@istitutosvizzero.it

Librarian
Romina Pallotto
romina.pallotto@istitutosvizzero.it

Accounting
Carlotta Cantagalli
carlotta.cantagalli@istitutosvizzero.it

Technician
Orazio Battaglia
tecnica@istitutosvizzero.it

Front Office and Assistant to Head of Science
Silvia Santini
silvia.santini@istitutosvizzero.it

Front Office and Assistant to Production and to Head Curator
Cecilia Lanzarini
cecilia.lanzarini@istitutosvizzero.it

 

Board of Directors:

President:
Mario Annoni
Former Councillor of State (Berne, La Neuveville)

Vice-president:
Giovanna Masoni Brenni
Lawyer and notary, Lugano, former deputy mayor of Lugano and former head of the Department of culture, education and the territory, Lugano

Members:
Giovanni Carmine
Curator, Zurich, director of the Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen
Hedy Graber
Head of the Directorate of cultural and social affairs, Migros Federation of Cooperatives Zurich
Luciana Vaccaro
Ph.D (physics), chancellor of the HES-SO (Haute Ecole spécialisée de Suisse occidentale), Delémont
Carlo Sommaruga
Lawyer and Councillor of State, Geneva, representative of the family of the donor Carolina Maraini-Sommaruga
Monika Schmutz Kirgöz
Ambassador of Switzerland to Italy, Malta and San Marino, Rome, permanent guest
Fabrice Zumbrunnen
Economist, company director

The Library
Comprising over 45,000 books and publications, the library of the Istituto Svizzero places a major collection of specialist works on archaeology, classical philology, history, art history and literature at the disposal of researchers. Founded in 1948 to include the bequests of the artist Adolf Holzer and of Carolina Maraini-Sommaruga, the owner of Villa Maraini, the library has since grown with the addition of books from the leading Swiss publishers as well as donations from professors and academicians, especially François Lasserre and Hanno Helbling.

The library offers workstations with Internet connections, a listening post for the PhonothĂšque nationale suisse (Swiss national record library), an interlibrary borrowing service (RERO, NEBIS, SBN) as well as the online URBS catalogue.

Identity
Creativity, typographic experimentation and Swiss excellence have inspired the graphic design of Istituto Svizzero. Its identity was conceived and developed originally by Dallas and is now run by its co-founder Kevin Pedron, art director and designer based in Milan with previous studies and training at ECAL in Lausanne.

Istituto Svizzero is a transdisciplinary platform which brings together several different research realities: art vs science, academic field vs curiosity, experience vs emergence. With this radical approach and experimental result, Istituto Svizzero wants to show that graphic design is an important and innovative field of the Swiss cultural identity. The content’s structure—slightly veiled by two coloured lines—reminds us that our activities take place on two sites: Rome and Milan.
To counterbalance our text and typo based content, once a year we will present a new series of images which highlight Switzerland’s diversity. In line with its transdisciplinary mission and contemporary approach, the Istituto Svizzero wants to support and nurture Swiss creativity in all fields.

Campaign
Each year Istituto Svizzero’s graphic design is accompanied by a photographic campaign that offers new perspectives on diverse aspects of Switzerland. For this edition, we cast light on the documentation of Swiss techno and club culture from the 1980s to 2000s. Realised in collaboration with ClubCultureCH.