Joëlle Comé
Joëlle Comé is the Director of Istituto Svizzero. She holds an MA in Cinema and Culture from INSAS (Brussels). She has a broad experience in managing cultural and international projects, artistic education and cultural policy. She started her career at the ICRC – International Committee of the Red Cross. After several years as a delegate in war zones on three different continents, she produced and directed documentary and institutional films for the ICRC headquarters in Geneva. Next she directed the Cinema Department of the ECAL (Lausanne University of the arts) before starting her own film production company. In 2007 she was appointed head of the cultural affairs of the Canton of Geneva and in 2016 Director of the Istituto Svizzero.

Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti
Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti is a curator and writer. Until 2024, she was the Chief Curator of Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin, where she co-curated monographic exhibitions such as Lee Lozano. Strike, Pinacoteca Agnelli and La Bourse – Pinault Collection, Paris (2023-24) and Sylvie Fleury. Turn Me On (2022), and curated new commissions by artists such as Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Lucy McKenzie, Chalisee Naamani, Mark Leckey, Cally Spooner, and Nina Beier, among others. She has curated exhibitions and projects in international museum institutions, published essays in various volumes, and regularly lectures in Italy and abroad. Among her recent projects are Motherless Daughters, VIN VIN in the context of “curated_by”, Vienna (2023); Esasperate, Eretiche, Estatiche, Almanac Inn, Turin (2021); Get Rid of Yourself (Ancora Ancora Ancora), Fondazione Baruchello, Rome (2019); Abstract Sex. We don’t have any clothes, only equipment, Artissima, Turin (2019). In 2018, she curated the 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Abracadabra. From 2018 to 2021, she worked at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo as curator and tutor of the international residency programme YCRP, and she was curator of the New Entries section at Artissima in 2018 and 2019. She trained in visual arts, curatorial studies, and critical social theory. She is co-founder and vice-president of AWI – Art Workers Italia.

Ilyas Azouzi
Dr. Ilyas Azouzi is Head of Science, Research, and Innovation since February 2025. A historian specialising in the political history and urban planning of fascist Italy, his work has focused particularly on the architectural legacy of Italian colonialism. Ilyas holds a PhD in History from University College London (UCL), a Master’s in Art History from the University of Lausanne, and a Master’s in Architectural History and Theory from the Bartlett School of Architecture. From 2019 to 2024, he was a lecturer at UCL, where he designed and developed courses in urban geography and architectural history. A former resident of the Roma Calling program at the Istituto Svizzero, Ilyas has been awarded several international prizes and fellowships, including those from the Max Weber Stiftung, the Raleigh Radford Rome Award in Rome, and the UCL Student Choice Award for “Brilliant Research-based Education”.

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
Roberto Balzaretti
Ambassador-designate of Switzerland to Italy, permanent guest
Fabrice Zumbrunnen
Economist, company director

The scientific and artistic committees are responsible for the selection of the candidates for residencies. Their members represent all the linguistic regions of Switzerland and are selected from among recognised experts in the Swiss worlds of arts and science.

Artistic committee:

President:
Giovanni Carmine
Curator, Zurich, director of the Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen

Members:
Nicolas Brulhart
Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg
Caroline Coutau
Editions ZOE, Carouge
Sabina Lang
artist, Burgdorf
Gesa Schneider
Literature expert, Zurich
Carine Zuber
Music expert, Zurich

Permanent guests:
Joëlle Comé
Director, Istituto Svizzero
Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti
Head curator, Istituto Svizzero

Scientific committee:

President:
Stefan Rebenich
Historisches Institut (ancient history), University of Bern

Members:
Anne Bielman
University of Lausanne, Faculty of Arts, Sciences of Antiquity
Marcel Bleuler
Zurich University of the Arts, Department of Fine Arts 
Susanna Burghartz
University of Basel, Department of History
Sarah Kenderdine
EPFL, Digital humanities
Nora Markwalder
University of St Gallen, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Criminology
Elli Mosayebi
ETH, Department of Architecture
Uberto Motta
University of Freiburg, Italian literature
Corinna Reinhardt
University of Zurich, Department of Classical Archaeology

Permanent guests:
Joëlle Comé
Director, Istituto Svizzero
Ilyas Azouzi
Head of science, research and innovation, Istituto Svizzero

Scientific Advisory Board:

Members:
Martine Collart
Vice-rector, Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva
Estelle Doudet
Vice Rector, Research, University of Lausanne
Martin Guggisberg
Classical archeology, University of Basel
Swetlana Heger-Davis
Director Fine Arts department, Dossier Internationales, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK
Frédéric Kaplan
Director of College of Humanities, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne EPFL
Felix Kessler
Director of Biology Institute and of Vegetable Physiology Lab, University of Neuchâtel
Daniela Mondini
History of art, Deputy Director for Research, Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana USI
Uberto Motta
Italian Literature, University of Fribourg
Stefan Rebenich
Historical Institute, ancient history, University of Bern
Doris Schmidli
University Manager, University of Lucerne
Christian Schwarzenegger
Vice-Rector, Law and Economics, University of Zurich
Thomas Strässle
Director Y Institute, Berner Fachhochschule BFH