The EXECAL Residency in La Becque grew out of a partnership between ECAL and La Becque, an artists’ residency launched in September 2018 by the Françoise Siegfried Meier Foundation on the banks of Lake Geneva, between Lausanne and Montreux.
This was the first cooperative venture between La Becque and a School of Art and Design, and sought to promote outstanding research projects in the field of art and design.
Consequently, from summer 2019 onwards, the EXECAL Residency in La Becque offers three former ECAL students the opportunity to participate in a four-week residency and explore La Becque’s main thematic areas, namely the intersections between nature and technology, and benefit from its unique facilities. Projects resulting from the residencies, regardless of discipline, will be included in a digital catalogue of EXECAL Residencies in La Becque.
Applications are welcome from all ECAL alumni, regardless of discipline, providing that they graduated at least three years prior to the start of the EXECAL residency in La Becque.
Deadline for 2024 Residences call for applications: extended until Sunday 10 March 2024 at 23:59 CET.
Whithin the framework of their partnership, ECAL and La Becque | Artists Residency joined forces to offer the "EXECAL Residences at La Becque" program. It awards three alumni with a month-long residency program, every year between July and September, with the objective to develop a project connected to their practices.
Therefore, the jury composed of Catherine Othenin-Girard (President, EXECAL), Luc Meier (Director, La Becque) and Alexis Georgacopoulos (Director, ECAL) selected:
ECAL Graduate in Master European Art Ensemble 2017
28 June - 26 July 2023
ECAL Graduate in Master Photography 2020
2 - 30 August 2023
Rani Yasmine Putri & David Loy
ECAL Graduate in Master Type Design 2019 (Rani)
ECAL Graduate in Bachelor Graphic Design 2018 (David)
6 September - 4 October 2023
EXECAL Residence at La Becque
Whithin the framework of their partnership, ECAL/University of Art and Design and La Becque | Artists Residency joined forces to offer the "EXECAL Residences at La Becque" program. It awards three alumni with a month-long residency program, every year between July and September, with the objective to develop a project connected to their practices.
Therefore, the jury composed of Catherine Othenin-Girard (President, EXECAL – Association des anciens étudiants et des amis de l’ECAL), Luc Meier (Director, La Becque) and Alexis Georgacopoulos (Director, ECAL) selected:
Laureates 2022
Art director and graphic designer, Emmanuel Crivelli explores the editorial world by questioning paper and digital formats. After his studies in graphic design at ECAL, he works with Philippe Jarrigeon and Sylvain Menétrey for the magazine Dorade - "Revue galante, photographie et formes critiques", which won the Swiss Design Awards in 2012. He then creates, in collaboration with an editorial team, POV Paper and POV magazine, which deal with gender and sexualities. In 2018, he won the mandate from the Federal Office of Culture to create the visual identity of the Swiss Design Awards until 2021. This project becomes a digital editorial content lab, with interactive articles, talks and live chats.
After graduating with a BA in Visual Arts from HEAD-Geneva, Marie Cornil completed a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design at ECAL/University of Art and Design in Lausanne. After her graduation in 2018, she exhibited her work at Villa Noailles as part of the Festival International Design Parade. She then joined, for two years, the studio Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec in Paris. She now works in collaboration with Alexandre Willaume. Together with French artisans and manufacturers, they develop a research project on imagining elements in which to live and interact, seeking to cultivate the multiplicity of their imbrications.
> La Becque Archives (to come?)
Romain Cazier is a creative coder based in Brussels. Having graduated from ECAL in Media and Interaction Design, Romain has always had an interest in using code for creative purposes. Currently he operates within EPRC, a studio co-founded with the graphic designer Emilie Pillet, where he creates websites and tools for European institutions working in the field of culture and design. Renewing an experimental practice initiated during his studies, he seeks to implement his technical and creative abilities for his own research.
> La Becque Archives (to come?)
ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne is happy to announce the laureates of the third EXECAL Residences at La Becque I Artists residency. Each will be granted with a month-long residency program, between July and early October 2021, with the objective to develop a project connected to their practices but also to the thematic focus of La Becque, the exploration of the relationship between nature, the environment and technology as seen through the prism of art and design.
Therefore, the jury composed of Catherine Othenin-Girard (President, EXECAL – Association des anciens étudiants et des amis de l’ECAL), Luc Meier (Director, La Becque) and Alexis Georgacopoulos (Director, ECAL) selected:
Iskander Guetta (BA Industrial Design, 2018) - July 2021
explored the reception and housing conditions of homeless people with his diploma project ABRI+, finalist at the Swiss Design Awards 2019. He undertook a trip to Morocco to explore design practices outside the neo-liberal Western world and an internship at the SELCO Foundation in Bangalore (IND). It allowed him to gain a better understanding of design in the Global South, in order to better perceive the intersecting issues of ecology and decolonization, which he tends to bring to bear in his practice. At La Becque, he will explore the potential and use of atomic shelters in the face of contemporary urban issues (project developed in collaboration with Tanguy Caversaccio, architect).
Mélanie Courtinat (BA Media & Interaction Design, 2017) - August 2021
artist and interactive, creates virtual spaces and speculative environments using mediums such as virtual and augmented reality, video games or 3D. By questioning the technical and narrative particularities of the technologies she uses, she actively participates in the mediation and perpetuation of these mediums in the art world. During her residency, she will develop a reflection on digital creation tools and the representation of natural elements to create a series of open access digital materials.
Caterina De Nicola (MA Arts Visuels, 2018) - September 2021
resorts to fiction, writing, sound and object investigation, to shape formal and discursive patterns, by developing an analysis of symbols and motifs, as well as their circulation in a larger cultural system. As a dj and producer, she is mostly affiliated with the Zürich based music label and collective Czarnagora. In her residency project, straddling fictional writing and sound investigation, and focusing on techniques of mythopoiesis, she will aim to generate tales of extreme horror and gore, influenced by a historical and social survey of the local surrounding.
> La Becque Archives (to come?)
ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne is happy to announce the laureates of the second EXECAL Residences at La Becque I Artists residency. Each will be granted with a month-long residency program, between July and early October 2020, with the objective to develop a project connected to their practices but also to the thematic focus of La Becque, the exploration of the relationship between nature, the environment and technology as seen through the prism of art and design.
Therefore, the jury composed of Catherine Othenin-Girard (President, EXECAL – Association des anciens étudiants et des amis de l’ECAL), Luc Meier (Director, La Becque) and Alexis Georgacopoulos (Director, ECAL) selected:
Charles-Antoine Chappuis (BA Graphic Design, 2014) - July 2020
is a Swiss-Brazilian multidisciplinary artist, living and working in Amsterdam. He investigates textile structures and handmade processes to create sculptural objects and installations; playfully referencing the archetypal forms of the home and the experiences linked to these. After his studies at ECAL, Charles-Antoine specialized in textiles under Anne Masson at La Cambre in Brussels. He researches materials for various artists and designers in The Netherlands and his personal work has been exhibited and sold internationally through galleries and design shops.
Julien Mercier (BA Graphic Design, 2012) - August 2020
is a computational artist and designer from Switzerland. He collaborates with various institutions across Europe involved in design and artistic research. His core topics of interest are ethics and accountability in Deep Learning. His work ranges across installation, sound, and video, and aims to unravel the mystifying capacity of artificial intelligence, as following both material and conceptual concerns. His artistic research de-situates notions like human vs non-human intelligence, nature vs culture, or authority vs autonomy. It manifests itself as simulacral spaces or artifacts where concepts of power, possession, truth, original and copy are shown to be obsolete. In 2019, he completed an MA in computational arts at Goldsmiths University of London.
Matheline Marmy (BA Photography, 2016) - September 2020
began her studies at ECAL and HFBK Hamburg in Photography and completed a Master degree in Fine Arts at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam in 2019. Her current research engages forms of observation and recording of temporal traces left by living organisms- whether human, chemical, or bacterial. With a mainly process-based production pattern, her work involves experimentation with material transformations, from phenomena such as growth, invasion, corrosion and sedimentation. Additionally, she runs the non-profit space Cabinet in Rotterdam as well as co-organizes the publication Exhibitions on Paper. Matheline recently received the Prix de la Relève Photographique of Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council. She works between Geneva and Rotterdam.
The successful candidates enjoyed each a month’s residency between July and September 2019 with a view to developing a project related to their own practice which also falls within La Becque’s chosen theme, namely the exploration of the intersection between nature and technology.
Consequently, a panel comprising Catherine Othenin-Girard (President, EXECAL), Luc Meier (Director, La Becque) and Alexis Georgacopoulos (Director, ECAL), selected:
Aladin Borioli (BA Photography) - July 2019
Since 2014, Aladin Borioli has been pursuing, DYI “Apian”, a research project examining the links between bees and humans and how each group shapes the other. As Aladin's interests are close to those of the human sciences, he completed a course in visual anthropology at the Freie Universität in Berlin in 2018. His “Apian” project is closely aligned both with art and anthropology.
Pauline Lemberger and Iris Andreadis (BA Industrial Design) - August 2019
In 2015, Pauline Lemberger co-founded the “Bouchée Double” studio in Brussels. Here she explores the culinary world through scenography, photography, object design and drawing. She adopts a global approach to cuisine that she has developed during her residencies in Japan and Mexico and in her numerous pop-up restaurants. Iris Andreadis is currently studying architecture in Paris. Her fascination for smart buildings and objects created with an economy of means, as observed in Greece and during her residency in Hong Kong, underpins her practice.
Thomas Grogan (BA Industrial Design) - September 2019
After training in industrial and prospective design, Thomas Grogan, based in London, has developed a research-led artistic practice in which he examines current and future social issues related to new technologies through various artistic media including sculpture, installations, video animation and digital platforms. His works visual language is clearly influenced by corporate marketing strategies, and the production and re-appropriation of industrial products.
> La Becque Archives (video)