Visit guide

Over the past decades, we have seen the emergence of an increasing number of art collectives. Taking many different forms, they challenge the romantic ideal of the solitary artist, defining creativity as a shared, horizontal process. A collective is not just a group of individuals working side by side; it becomes a conceptual, poetic, political engine, a space where other ways of producing, exchanging, and disseminating art are invented.

Echoing the experiences of the art colony that lived at Gruyères Castle 175 years ago, Jouer collectif! ("Team Players") brings together ten art collectives from Western Switzerland. It is an invitation to discover the full breadth of collaborative practices used to redefine contemporary art. Using installations, videos, publishing, performances, and sound installations, the exhibition explores the output of collective creativity and the reasons why artists work together.

What happens when artists decide to create together, rather than alone? By pooling their strengths, collectives reinvent production modes, spark exchanges, and bring together various ideas and disciplines. Their work, which displays significant formal quality, also becomes participatory ideation spaces where various technical media and skills bounce and feed off each other. On this collective playing field, the lines between disciplines are blurred, letting art evolve organically.

In addition to the diversity of approaches, these collectives have a shared intention to rethink the concept of authorship. For a collective, artwork is no longer the signature of one individual, but rather, the outcome of a joint process: combining gestures, thoughts, creativity, and exchanges. Art becomes a community-based, sometimes anonymous product. This political stance is a stark departure from the dominant legacy of individualism in art history. This detachment from the ego opens an avenue for new forms of experimentation and a different relationship to artwork, which is seen as a shared, living space rather than a finished product.

By exploring themes such as environmental protection, the digital economy, image building, land, or art production and dissemination methods, these collectives invent other ways to inhabit the world. Their work highlights both knowledge circulation and the current social and environmental trends. An invitation to think, feel, and imagine differently.

Featuring: Apian, collectif_fact, collectif facteur, Fragmentin, Institut créole, jocjonjosch, MALM, Nostal Chic, POST, Stirnimann-Stojanovic.

Curator: Filipe Dos Santos, assisted by Damien Spozio

YOUR LOGO* HERE!, (2019–…)
F200 posters (printed on blueback paper), Burri visual media (double-sided)

The YOUR LOGO* HERE! project, imagined by Stirnimann-Stojanovic, takes the form of a “performative offer” where artists offer to become human advertisements. For a year, they commit to wearing T-shirts showing the logo of a company or organization for CHF 50k per person. This number is based on 8 hours of work per day for 251 days, at CHF 24.90 per hour. This approach aims to call out the poor working conditions and pay in the art world.

This offer, which comes with strict provisions displayed on the back of the T-shirts, is tied to tangible commitments to sustainable, social, and responsible practices. By making this transaction more difficult, the proposal becomes a manifesto raising awareness of systemic inequality and calling for fairer living standards in the art sphere, but also in society as a whole.

Stirnimann-Stojanovic

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, Stirnimann-Stojanovic is an art duo comprised of Nathalie Stirnimann (b. 1990) and Stefan Stojanovic (b. 1993). Since 2015, this collective’s joint practice has been spurred its members’ visual art training, completed in 2020 with a Master’s Degree from Zurich University of the Arts. Through performances, installations, and objets d’art, their work explores social and structural issues in the art world, with the critical outlook of emerging artists.

Their interdisciplinary, collaborative approach is at the intersection of art, activism, and society. Stirnimann-Stojanovic tries to challenge trends in the artistic community by highlighting its working conditions and advocating for fairer, more sustainable practices.

Displuvium, 2019
Corten steel and aluminum basin, pipes, water pumps, electronic parts, screens, computer
mudac Collection, Lausanne, Switzerland

Since the late 1940s, techniques such as cloud seeding have been used to change precipitation and protect crops, mitigate droughts, or benefit military efforts. In Displuvium, Fragmentin address these controversial human interventions, showcasing the human fantasy of controlling natural forces. This installation, created in collaboration with designer Renaud Defrancesco, includes a basin on the ground with screens showing weather events, some natural, some altered by humans. At the surface of the water, rain seems to fall in line with events and locations shown on the monitors.

At a crossroads between nature and artificial creations, this work highlights both our growing ability to recreate natural phenomena through technology and the limitations that come along with it. The irregularities and visible imperfections of Displuvium are a reminder that despite progress, some physical elements still escape our control. This artificial rain, at once mesmerizing and eerie, is an invitation to reflect on our ambivalent relationship to the environment and the fragile beauty of what we try to control.

Hyperhighways, 2023
aluminum, reflective bands, steel

In its Hyperhighways series, Fragmentin revisits road signage with subtle twists on its visual codes. By changing these familiar symbols, they examine our relationship to infrastructure, mobility and control mechanisms that shape our day-to-day lives. This work imagines a future where signs are for both self-driving vehicles and human drivers, reflecting a growing tension between humans and smart technology.

Each sign is managed via software designed by Fragmentin, then selected based on its evocativeness. These objects from our daily lives become invitations to reflect, playing on ambiguity and humor to highlight invisible systems – pictograms, QR codes, CAPTCHA – that shape our environment and our behaviors.

Fragmentin

Fragmentin is an art collective founded in Lausanne in 2014. Its current members include Laura Nieder (b. 1991), David Colombini (b. 1989), and Marc Dubois (b. 1985), all graduates from École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL).

At the crossroads between art and engineering, their practice explores the influence of technology on our lives, particularly its ability to control. Their work is often interactive, and addresses major current issues such as climate change. Using varied media (sculpture, installations, videos, performances), Fragmentin aim to make complex technology accessible and highlight the tensions that come along with it.

Arpentages, 2023
video installation on a loop, 32’53” and 27’89”

MALM’s work, which stems from their artistic experience in Val Ferret, is first and foremost a description of our relationship to land. In the video installation Arpentages, the collective shows its slow progression up an avalanche corridor. Following the pace of a hike on rugged terrain, it patiently maps the glacier foreland. These areas, rife with sedimentary deposits, are dynamic: water, gravity, processes involving glaciers, rivers, and lakes interact to shape life.

La fête est finie, 2023
installation, polished schist on polystyrene globe, underground recordings, sound composition (Charles Guex), 13’03”

A dark disco ball, hanging from the room’s ceiling, spins slowly to falsely cheerful music. The shiny object is covered in polished black schist, a mineral from the Carboniferous (about 350 million years b.C.), a luscious era that produced most of our planet’s oil resources. Titled La fête est finie (“The Party is Over”), the installation includes earthly sounds, such as the cracks from melting ice.

Salix & Gentiana, 2023
silkscreen prints on reflective fabric

A discreet light shines on gentiane and willow leaves covered in morning dew. In Salix & Gentiana, MALM uses silkscreen painting to recreate the image of these plants encountered throughout their residency. However, do not confuse this with a scientifically minded herbarium: these delicate plants are reproduced on reflective fabric, which is normally used to keep its wearers safe.

MALM

MALM is comprised of four female artists and researchers, Mathilda Olmi (b. 1991), Amaranta Fontcuberta (b. 1989), Margaux Bula (b. 1991), and Laura Gönczy (b. 1994). The collective took up residence in Val Ferret to focus on ecotones, i.e., areas where various natural environments intersect. Combining art, natural science, and exploring the world using their bodies, they focus on the mechanisms that take us from one scale to another, whether in terms of space or time. This residency has produced a number of pieces, including installations and performances held on location.

This experience started based on topographical maps, with their abstract lines to dissect geographical areas. The goal was to challenge these boundaries through tangible reconnaissance on the ground, to involve the body in perceiving these ecotones to show how porous the borders on maps can be. Using scientific tools and methods, although not without a creative twist, MALM creates art forms by questioning borders. Its approach is rooted in a feminist outlook on land.

Worstward Ho!, 2013
oak, larch, chestnut, metal, leather, cotton
Musée d’Art du Valais Collection, Sion

Worstward Ho!, a title taken from a 1983 short story by Samuel Beckett, is a little boat with three oars. Its falsely tapered silhouette makes it look more like a small circular tub fitting three people. While the rowers are harmoniously and evenly spread out, it is highly unlikely that this craft would go anywhere on water. If they were to row together, the boat would just spin in circles in a ballet of absurd, inefficient gestures.

Dig Shovel Dig, Ardez, 2013
video, 15’25’’
Musée d’Art du Valais Collection, Sion

Several works and performances from jocjonjosch feature digging and digging tools. This repetitive gesture, along with soil, a raw material in artistic creation, is interesting to this collective that keeps on digging. Working on soil is a nod to construction, agriculture, and the workforce as a whole. In Dig Shovel Dig, Ardez, the artists orchestrate a series of gestures where each one digs their shovel into the ground, obtaining a clump of soil which they hand over to their neighbor. This ritual creates a silly merry-go-round with no other point than to create an ephemeral sculpture to the beat of digging sounds.

jocjonjosch

jocjonjosch is a British and Swiss collective comprised of Jocelyn Marchington (b. 1976), Jonathan Brantschen (b. 1981), and Joschi Herczeg (b. 1975). Their multidisciplinary practice includes performances, sculpture, photography, videography, and drawing. They consistently explore concepts such as identity, particularly the tensions between the individual and the group, often using their own bodies or a collective dynamic.

With their sensitive, physical approach, jocjonjosch investigates the boundaries of the human condition and collaborative mechanisms. Pushing the logic of success, efficiency, or purpose to an extreme, the group creates poetic paradoxes. This exploration results in performances and works replete with humor, sometimes pleasantly absurd, which hearken back to Samuel Beckett’s work.

Quelques aspects de la vie contemporaine, 2025
installation, paint on canvas (various dates)

In this installation, Institut créole shows a variety of paintings with different formats, hanging all the way up the stone wall. Suspended in front of one another in a subtle game of superpositions, they create the impression of a computer monitor with various screens open. This layout depicts the constant flow of images fed to us every day, whether from twenty-four-hour news channels or social media.

In this visual constellation, the artists address key themes in Institut créole’s work: freedom of speech, propaganda, power imbalances, beliefs, migration, and the environment. This reveals a world which is at once fragmented and interconnected, rife with tension and constantly shifting.

Institut créole

Founded in 2014 by Wojtek Klakla (b. 1967) and Pierre-Alain Morel (b. 1966), Institut créole owes its name to the work of Édouard Glissant (1928-2011), a writer, poet, and philosopher from Martinique. His writings deeply redefined our understanding of identity and cultural exchanges, seen as fluid, dynamic, constantly changing processes.

While they have their individual practice, the artists regularly meet at the Institute to engage and make creations discussing the main issues of today. Some of their work is made by their four hands; others are made separately. But all of their output addresses issues such as freedom of speech, power imbalances, beliefs, migration, or the environment. Their work explores the tensions and contradictions of globalized society, an invitation to rethink our relationship to others and the world at large.

Untitled, 2024
mixed techniques

Designed specifically for this room, collectif facteur’s installation combines prints, objects, and materials from prior projects; these artistic experiences are often part of a dialogue between nature and architecture. By putting these elements back into context and giving them new life, the collective reveals a key aspect of their approach: constantly changing collaborative work, reusing works and having them talk to each other.

This temporary installation invites viewers to rediscover this historic space, which has been revisited. It also highlights part of the collective’s history. While these installations are, by definition, ephemeral, they are also shown in publications edited since 2017 and featured within this setup.

collectif facteur

collectif facteur is comprised of artists Basile Richon (b. 1990), Christel Voeffray (b. 1990), Gabrielle Rossier (b. 1990), and Rémy Bender (b. 1988). Involved in various areas such as space, installations, sound, images, performances, and drawing, the artists see their practice as a moving project based on exchange and immersion. Through residences, invitations, or cartes blanches, they develop onsite happenings that engage the history, resources, and specificities of the locations used.

Their indoor and outdoor installations show that any space an host an exhibition, questioning the need for the institutional white box. Members work on one project at a time; each brings their own media and sensitivity, without ever forgetting about the idea of collective work and co-creation.

Hyggelig, 2024
mixed techniques

Hyggelig (Danish for “pleasant,” “comforting,” or “welcoming”) brings together five staged miniature houses on fake stone pedestals, laid on artificial turf. Each building displays a specific situation: in one, a fireplace crackles behind red-hot glass windows; others are lit by a television showing ads and sitcoms in a nostalgic atmosphere.

By giving the impression that the occupants are home, the work creates a sense of safety which is unaccessible to the public: from the top, they can only imagine what is happening inside. Isolated on their rock formations, these chalets appear at once remote and protected. By celebrating the idealized, timeless ideal of single-family homes, this installation highlights the stereotype while questioning the comfort and safety they promise.

Cozy Cabin Ambiance, 2024
video, 10’

The video starts with the image of a cozy home, similar to a chalet, lit by an active fireplace while a snowstorm rages outside. The crackling fire and the whistling wind create a comforting atmosphere, similar to “fall asleep videos,” which are very popular on YouTube.

However, while this space feels safe at first, a character disrupts the scene and addresses the viewer directly. Introducing himself as AI-generated, he is aware of his own artificiality and posits about simulation, a speculation on simulated realities and the individual’s existence. Throughout his speech, he draws connections with other pieces in the exhibition and encourages viewers to get involved. The video becomes a reflection for immersion, technology, and the human condition.

Nachem Räge schint Sunne (“The Sun Shines After the Rain”), 2024
video, 10’

Shown on an acid green turf floor, this video features a music box shaped like a miniature chalet, with a slowly rising roof. This shift highlights how fragile a stand-alone home is, stripping its imaginary occupants of shelter while making viewers wonder about what could be within its walls.

The popular Swiss song, which lends its name to this work, is slowed down, deeper, and amplified by deep reverberation. The song loses its original levity, distilling an ambivalent atmosphere where comfortable familiarity somehow feels uncanny.

Nostal Chic

Founded by David Bregenzer (b. 1991) and Samuel Rauber (b. 1990), Nostal Chic has been making art as a collective for the past eight years. It started as Boyband CHIC, a collective created in 2018 with Jonas Weber, exploring the mechanisms of popular culture and music through critical, humorous video performances.

Having changed its name to Nostal Chic in 2023, the duo now has a multimedia approach combining videography, sculpture, and installations. Their Swiss Flex project, which was shown for the first time at KOMMET in Lyon, France, questions concepts such as simulation and cocooning. This installation goes beyond the two-dimensional nature of a screen, creating an immersive experience playing on viewers’ eyes as well as their other senses.

• Collection of archives, collages, publications and various objects
  mixed techniques
• Domestic Castello, 2025
  mixed techniques
• Untitled, 2025
  digital print on paper

POST brings to Gruyères a selection of works and archives from various eras. The collective explores various media and always makes projects larger than originally intended, or than their own contributions: exhibitions in alternative locations, concerts, theater decors and props, publishing, and objets d’art. Each collaboration becomes an opportunity to explore new modes of expression, fueled at once by pop culture and subcultures.

In its glass displays, POST shows series of old collages, fanzines, and various objects reflecting the breadth of its experiences. They also feature a new sculpture, Domestic Castello, designed specifically for Gruyères, with a nod to H.R. Giger’s Alien. This work, which reuses parts of a previous installation in a techno club, is in a sharp contrast with the room’s bucolic paintings. Finally, above the daybed, POST hangs a fictional poster for the project carried out at the castle.

POST

POST is an art collective founded in 2008 by Elise Gagnebin-de Bons (b. 1976) and Robin Michel (b. 1973). Their approach explores the interplay between visual and sound art by subverting conventional exhibition formats and pictural codes.

Working independently in their own names, the artists occasionally collaborate under the POST label. The collective’s practice, fueled by an interest in alternative cultures, especially music, takes on different forms, combines visual and sound work, live performances, publishing, silkscreen painting, fanzines, and various objects, creating a unique, constantly evolving artistic language.

Green Storm, 2022
video, 10’45’’

Green Storm shows rehearsals for a movie filming in Egypt, where a plant nursery was turned into a studio. Unlike a traditional movie set with a green screen—used to remove or incorporate digitally created backgrounds—the trees provide their own green screen. collectif_fact subverts this technique as part of a metaphor: the green screen, which now represents popular environmental sentiment, reflects a distant, artificial relationship with nature. By depicting natural disasters, the work also highlights the increasing similarity between fictional environmental disasters and real scientific alerts, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.

collectif_fact

collectif_fact brings together Annelore Schneider (b. 1979) and Claude Piguet (b. 1977). Its video practice challenges the established processes related to images: how they are made and shown, how they impact our world view. Through fictional, speculative narratives, they explore the alienating cultural and environmental aspects of our visual environments.

Their approach combines narration, cinema language, and editing techniques, making complex creations including 3D scans, movie excerpts, archives, and sound bites. By manipulating these recognizable materials, the collective plays on our fascination for images and their ability to create illusions. Viewers are encouraged to question dominant narratives and visual representations that shape our understanding of reality.

Apian – Le Ministère des Abeilles, 2025
videos, sound composition, various objects
an installation made with the collaboration of Laurent Güdel, Fragmentin and Benjamin Louis Xavier Zollinger

Apian introduces a piece of speculative fiction on an imaginary institution, the “Ministry of Bees.” In this multimedia installation, the collective draws inspiration from the early days of IT, especially the Cybersyn project, designed by Stafford Beer for Chile’s Allende Administration in the 1970s. The aim of this program was to create a self-management system, akin to a bee colony, on a national scale, a structure based on the rapid circulation of economic data between production bodies.

This work also draws a parallel with the command centers of modern-day automated farms, where agricultural processes are orchestrated by digital technology. Using various elements (monitors, science publications, magazines, beekeeping tools), Apian creates a mix of historic references, autobiographical elements, and current scientific research on bees to create a space for poetic, critical reflection. This installation becomes a crossroads between science, personal memory, and technological utopias.

Apian

Created in 2014 by artist and researcher Aladin Borioli, Apian is a flexible collective. Imagined as a “Ministry of Bees,” this project is inspired by Juan Antonio Ramírez’s The Beehive Metaphor, in which “apian” refers to anything that can be considered in relation to bees, from architecture to social behaviors. Apian is a resolutely collaborative project, whether with individuals or other collectives. Its approach is based on a personal journey combining graphic design, photography, visual anthropology, critical philosophy, and beekeeping.

Positioned at the intersection between various disciplines, Apian explores the relationship between humans and bees as part of a horizontal approach. By combining art practice, history, beekeeping, and philosophizing, the collective seeks to invent new ways to coexist with bees, beyond extractive, productivist mindsets. It aims to create safe spaces which can host egalitarian encounters between species and help us rethink our relationship to life.