Team
Contact the team at Istituto Svizzero 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

COO/Public Programme
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 Assistant
Valeria Dellisanti
valeria.dellisanti@istitutosvizzero.it

Librarian
Romina Pallotto
romina.pallotto@istitutosvizzero.it

Technician
Orazio Battaglia
tecnica@istitutosvizzero.it

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

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

 

 

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.

Gioia Dal Molin
Gioia Dal Molin is Head Curator and responsible for the artistic programme at Istituto Svizzero since January 2020. She studied Art History and History at the Universities of Zurich and Rome and received her PhD in 2014, with a thesis on the promotion of the visual arts in Switzerland. From 2015 to 2019, she directed the Cultural Foundation of the Canton of Thurgau. As a freelance author and curator, she writes art historical texts for various publications and has realised numerous exhibition and performance projects as well as artist books. She is further co-initiator of the Zurich exhibition and discussion format Le Foyer and has worked as an external expert and mentor at various art academies. From 2016 to 2019 she was a jury member of the Cantonal Commission for Art in Public Space of the Canton of Aargau.

Maria Böhmer
Maria Böhmer is Head of Research, Science, and Innovation at Istituto Svizzero since September 2021. She studied History and German Literature at the Humboldt-University in Berlin and at the Università La Sapienza in Rome. She completed the PhD programme “History and Civilization” at the European University in Florence and received her PhD in 2013 with a thesis on 19th-century European Psychiatry. From 2014 to 2021, she was a researcher and lecturer in history of medicine and science at the University of Zurich. She was also a lecturer in Medical Humanities at the University of Freiburg (CH), and she participated to the interdisciplinary “Center History of Knowledge” (ZGW) of the University of Zurich and ETH as associated researcher, speaker of associates and member of the enlarged directorship.

The Foundation
The Foundation is a non-profit body. Its board of directors comprises figures from Switzerland’s political, cultural and academic worlds as well as a family’s member of the donor Carolina Maraini-Sommaruga. Its composition is such as to ensure a balance between linguistic areas as well as equality in terms of gender and management skills.

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

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:
Boris Brüderlin
Dance Network Switzerland
Nicolas Brulhart
Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg
Caroline Coutau
Editions ZOE, Carouge
Sabina Lang
artist, Burgdorf
Gesa Schneider
Literaturhaus, Zurich
Carine Zuber
Moods, Zurich

Permanent guests:
Joëlle Comé
Director, Istituto Svizzero
Gioia Dal Molin
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
Christoph Hoffmann
University of Lucerne, Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences
Dominique Jaillard
University of Geneva, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Classics
Sarah Kenderdine
EPFL, Digital humanities
Bärbel Küster
University of Zurich, Institute of Art History
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

Permanent guests:
Joëlle Comé
Director, Istituto Svizzero
Maria Böhmer
Head of science, research and innovation, Istituto Svizzero

Scientific Advisory Board:

Members:
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
Micheline Louis-Courvoisier
Vice-rector, History, University of Geneva
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