Highlights Fine Arts
A New Partnership with Mexico City
In 2024, the Department of Fine Arts established a new partnership with Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado ‘La Esmeralda’ in Mexico City, Mexico. This marks the Department’s first partnership in the region and is in line with ZHdK’s broader ambition to establish closer ties with art universities in the Global South.
Relations between the two institutions commenced through the project ‘Sense of a Place’ funded by the ZHdK Fund for Intercultural Faculty and Mid-Tier Staff Projects. Led and initiated by Johanna Vieli from the Department of Fine Arts, the project aimed at establishing an intercultural exchange between six Fine Arts students from Mexico City and Zurich through hybrid workshops and culminated in a virtual exhibition. Besides enabling dialogues and fostering long-distance friendships between the participating students, this cooperation eventually led to the signing of an agreement for student exchange under ZHdK’s Global South Scholarships programme. In the autumn of 2025, ZHdK welcomed two students from La Esmeralda for an exchange semester in the Fine Arts Bachelor.
‘Art Talks’ Featuring International Artists
Every semester, ZHdK's Department of Fine Arts hosts a series of public talks with guests from the contemporary art and culture sector.
In 2024, the Department welcomed nine guest speakers from Switzerland and beyond, spanning various disciplines and backgrounds. These included British artist and sociologist Nina Wakeford, Swedish-American contemporary artist Aleksandra Mir, New York-based Anne-Sophie Berger, Danish artist Christian Falsnaes, and German filmmaker and moving image artist Hito Steyerl. But also Swiss artists with a strong international orientation complemented the series of talks, such as Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret, Brasil born PRICE, Berlin-based Flora Klein and artist Uriel Orlow. All talks are held in English and are open to all ZHdK students and staff as well as an external audience.
