Embassy of Foreign Artists     

Embassy of Foreign Artists is launching a new cycle of Art&Science residencies (2026–2028) around the cross-cutting theme of imagination in research processes.

Context

For more than ten years, the Embassy of Foreign Artists (EOFA) in Geneva has been hosting artists in residence and promoting collaborations between art and science.

In partnership with the Campus Biotech Geneva Foundation, the University of Geneva, EPFL, the Fluxum Foundation, and several research laboratories, the Art&Science programme has enabled numerous artists and scientists to develop joint projects at the crossroads of disciplines, giving rise to unprecedented experiments, publications, and international presentations (Ars Electronica, Geneva International Film Festival, Moscow Biennale, etc.).

New programmme for 2026–2028 : Imagination

From 2026 onwards, the programme will be rolled out on a new basis, centred on the cross-cutting theme of imagination — considered to be an essential driver of thought, creativity and research. This cycle of residencies will run for three years (2026–2028), with three three-month sessions, and will be open to new scientific, academic, medical, technological and industrial partners.

The aim is to create artist-scientist duos around ongoing research projects, in which artistic practice questions, enriches or recontextualises scientific processes and representations.

At a time when generative technologies are revolutionising the way we think and create, the role of human imagination is becoming a field of exploration common to all disciplines.

With imagination in research processes as its guiding principle, the programme invites participants to explore together:

  • the role of intuition in scientific and artistic research;
  • how images, representations and metaphors influence the construction of knowledge;
  • the links between natural, visual and digital languages, between reason and sensitivity, 
 between formula and form.

Partner laboratories

BIO-IONTRONICS (BION) at EPFL
Head of the laboratory and scientific project: Prof. Yujia Zhang
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: Ionic devices, bionics, bioiontronics, brain-like computing, microdroplet-based devices
Possible hosting periods: sep-dec 2026 / feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://www.epfl.ch/labs/bion/

At the Laboratory for Bio-Iontronics (BION), the mission is to make bioiontronic systems for biointerfaces and hybrid intelligent systems. To that end, we are interested in developing dropletronic systems with key functions of embodied energy, logic control, stimuli- responsiveness, and therapeutics delivery, enabling interactive communication with biology. The dropletronic system will be formed from three-dimensionally (3D) printed picoliter droplet networks, which use lipid bilayer, functional nanopores, and charge-selective solutes to feature sophisticated ion control. Ultimately, the bioiontronic systems will provide an alternative strategy, in parallel to bioelectronic medicine, to be used as bioiontronic medicine (ionoceuticals) for a wide range of medical conditions.

MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING (MIP:Lab) at Campus Biotech
Head of the scientific project: Dr. Karolis Degutis
Head of the laboratory: Prof. Dimitri Van De Ville
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: explore what it means to treat the brain as a generative system that constantly produces internal narratives
Possible hosting periods: sep-dec 2026 / feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://miplab.epfl.ch/

The Medical Image Processing Laboratory (MIP:Lab) develops new ways of analyzing brain imaging data. We treat the brain as a network: rather than focusing on isolated regions, we study how patterns of activity spread and interact across the brain over time, and how these patterns relate to perception, thought, and clinical conditions.
With ultra-high-field 7 Tesla MRI, we can now acquire images of the human brain at submillimeter resolution and separate signals that come predominantly from different cortical depths. This allows us to probe these ideas about feedforward and feedback processing directly in human participants.


BIO MEDICAL RESEARCH (DBMR) at University Bern
Head of the scientific project: Prof. Raphaëlle Luisier

in partnership with 5 research groups (EPFL, Idiap, USI, NUS)
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: explore RNA as a molecule that is not fixed but continuously folds, unfolds, and changes its conformation in response to its environment and interaction partners, as its identity emerges through movement, interaction, and time
Possible hosting periods: sep-dec 2026 / feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028

https://www.luisierlab.com/

The BioMedical Research laboratory is part of an international alliance of five research groups based in Switzerland (EPFL, Idiap, USI) and Singapore (NUS), working together on a research program entitled SATURNA. This project is dedicated to uncovering the dynamic choreography of RNA structure and function. Inspired by the concept of dance, where motion and timing define form and function, SATURNA treats RNA as a kinetic system, seeking patterns in folding pathways, conformational landscapes, and structural transitions that underlie biological regulation and disease mechanisms. By integrating advanced artificial intelligence with experimental and computational biology, the initiative focuses on modelling how RNA molecules fold, transition, and interact over time as coordinated structural ensembles.

BRAIN AND MEMORY LAB (BAM) at Campus Biotech
Head of the laboratory and scientific project: Prof. Alison Montagrin
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: examine how memory and imagination intertwine, and in particular determine whether certain elements, especially emotional ones, are preferentially integrated into these reconstructions
Possible hosting periods: feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://neuro-unige.ch/
https://www.unige.ch/cisa/research/research-groups/cisa-groups/

Our laboratory’s research work is part of an integrative approach in neuroscience, affective psychology, and cognitive psychology. It aims to understand how memory systems and emotions organize human behavior in order to enable effective adaptation to the environment. We are interested in how goal relevance allows us to filter, select, and consolidate information in memory over the long term. We cannot remember everything, so we preferentially retain what is relevant to our future goals. Indeed, memory is not only used to retrieve information from the past, but also to project ourselves into the future. We have shown that the ability to mentally travel through time relies on distinct brain networks depending on whether past, present, or future information is being represented. The way we encode temporal information in memory is essential, because memory helps define who we are: without chronological organization of events, we would lose much of the information that constitutes our identity.

Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition at Campus Biotech
Head of the scientific project: Dr. Lina Teichmann
Head of laboratory: Prof. Patrik Vuilleumier
Potential areas or topics for collaboration: examining the role of colour in visual perception and how colour vision deficiencies change our perception of the world, understanding the use of colour in visual illusions
Possible hosting periods: feb-apr 2027 / feb-apr 2028
https://neuro-unige.ch/
https://neurocenter-unige.ch/research-groups/patrik-vuilleumier/

This research group at the University of Geneva studies visual perception using neuroimaging and behavioural methods, with the specific goal of exploring and quantifying individual differences in visual perception using Colour Vision as a model. Colour vision is the ideal testing ground to characterize subjective visual experiences, as it is biophysically constrained and well-defined, and it varies substantially across people. The variability in colour vision can be related to differences in the sensory apparatus, genetic profile, experience, culture and language. Our goal is to understand how these different sources of variability affect neural activity evoked by viewing colours to measure and quantify subjective differences in perception.

OPEN NOW: Call for participation – For artists from all disciplines

We invite artists from all disciplines to lead a reflection and researches alongside scientific within their actual laboratories.
The aim is to promote exchanges and crossovers between scientific and artistic practices, in order to bring about new ways of formulating, perceiving, and using research in both science and art. Connecting these fields promotes a better understanding of their respective areas of research.

The selected artist will be hosted for three months at the laboratory (in Geneva or the surrounding region), working directly with the scientific team, and will receive mediation support from the programme team.

Objectives for collaboration

  • Explore new approaches to research, analysis and communication through the encounter between art and science.
  • Promote mutual understanding of the methods and languages specific to each discipline.
  • Experiment with innovative forms of interpretation, visualisation and restitution.
  • Participate in the creation of a collective map of scientific and artistic imagination.

Each pair will be invited to present the results of their collaboration at an interdisciplinary round table and in a collective publication at the end of the cycle.

Required profile

  • Professional artists from all backgrounds engaged in an artistic research project in any field (visual arts, dance, theater, music, writing, comics, cinema, etc.), whose project would benefit from the cutting-edge research conducted by the partner laboratories.
  • Interest in transdisciplinary dialogue and openness to experimental approaches.
  • Availability to stay in Geneva for three months in contact with the local artistic and scientific community.

Practical details

  • Duration of the residency: 3 months (to be selected according to the proposed sessions).
  • Location: In the house of EOFA and at the partner laboratory in Switzerland.
  • Support: The artist will receive
    • accommodation in a private room with access to the areas shared with other residents,
    • a residency stipend of CHF 1400 per month,
    • mediation and communication support provided by EOFA,
    • pairing with a scientist within their research project,
    • access to equipment and data depending on the laboratories.

Condition for application

Candidates must respond to the following criteria:

  • Be a professional artists coming from following artistic fields: performing arts, visual arts and applied arts, that is active in either fine arts, music, literature, comics, cinema, dance, theatre, design, video, etc.
  • Must have a wide range of creations, publications and performances at a professional level.
  • Not be currently registered in a basic artistic training course.
  • Be over 28 at the time of application.
  • Speak French or English.
  • Accept and agree to pay costs related to their travel and possible artistic production.

Documents for application

Interested artists are invited to submit a proposal including:

  1. The application questionnaire fully completed.
  2. The application file in pdf format – maximum 15 pages including:
    1. A motivation cover letter (1 page max)
    2. A description of the research project to be developed during the residency
    3. A portfolio of recent works
    4. An up-to-date cv

Contact and information

To be sent by email to: residence@eofa.ch
Subject line: “Call for artistic participation – Art&Science – Imagination”
Deadline for receipt: 19 April 2026 by midnight local time (UTC+2).
The completed questionnaire, fully completed with Adobe Acrobat (click here), and your application file must be sent separately in the same email (residence@eofa.ch) in PDF format.