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image d'illustration © HEAD – Genève, Jimmy Roura

Fine Arts

Teaching methods are designed as closely as possible to artistic practice and geared towards an interdisciplinary approach and artistic experiences on a 1:1 scale.

image d'illustration © Greg Clément

The Fine Arts Department includes five BA majors and three MA course choices. It also offers a set of demanding theory courses and specialised interdisciplinary courses as well as an intense programme of conferences, symposia and readings, a series of off-site projects, commissions and partnerships, an exhibition space and a publishing programme of artists’ books.

Every day, this major art education programme in Switzerland is brought to life thanks to some 300 students, 50+ teachers – artists, theorists, curators – and numerous international guests.

Bachelor of Arts in Fine arts

image d'illustration © Claudia Ndebele

The five options in the HEAD – Genève bachelor’s course in visual arts are run by teams of artists, theorists and curators from Switzerland and elsewhere. This innovative structure provides an approach that goes beyond the traditional divisions into media (painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, performance and new media), themes (bodies, spaces, images, interfaces, realities and reproductions) or methods (books, programmes, studios, projects, collective or individual initiatives). Its unusual groupings are based on the hybrid reality of contemporary artistic practice. The theoretical instruction provides a multivocal approach that blends readings across time, practices and disciplines of thought. The specialised classes, focusing on production, offer a high-quality interdisciplinary technical approach and a series of 1:1-scale artistic experiments.

Admission requirements

Graduation from upper secondary school nd successful completion of the entrance exam

Registration deadline

4 March 2025

Fees for Swiss students

(Swiss nationality, resident in Switzerland for tax purposes, or cross-border commuter status)
CHF 775.- per semester

Fees for foreign students

CHF 1125.- per semester

Duration

6 semesters

Credits

180 ECTS

Professional prospects:

freelance artist, artistic director, ultural interpreter, curator, art ritic, teacher, researcher, performer, tage manager, scenographer, video maker
image d'illustration © Roman Lusser

Appropria­tion Major: Images, Documents, Publishing

Teaching in the Appropriation major addresses publishing as a mirror of artistic practice. Work in the workshop is not limited to any specific medium and favours the exploratory dimension of artistic forms.

It focuses on a critical approach to visual culture and the circulation of images by working on different forms: traditional or experimental, two- or three-dimensional, paper or digital…

image d'illustration © HEAD – Genève, Raphaëlle Mueller

Construction Major: Sculpture, Objects, Installa­tions

Construction offers a cross-disciplinary approach to sculpture and fosters extremely diversified approaches that may include text, performance and sound.

The programme combines the production of works in workshops with external projects such as exhibitions, works in the public space, events and publications. By associating conceptual contributions with practical experimentation, students gradually develop their work in all its dimensions, artistic, cultural and political.

image d'illustration © HEAD – Genève

Information / Fiction Major: Photography, Video, Media

With photography and video as the main tools, this programme invites students to engage with the world, to carry out projects in situ and to reflect on ways of showcasing these projects to the public.

The exploration of contemporary realities may involve fiction, documentary, field survey, archival work or intervention on social networks.

image d'illustration © HEAD – Genève, Raphaëlle Mueller

[Inter]action Major: Perfor­mances, Writing, Digital Practices

This programme focuses on time-based arts, the place of the audience and propinquity with other fields including performing arts, sound art and digital practices.

Operating as a laboratory, the programme is based on experimentation with “materials” such as voice and body, video, sound, image, text and computer codes. Art students are encouraged to develop their approach by working closely within a specific context or situation, either historical, social or cultural.

image d'illustration © HEAD – Genève

Representation Major: Painting and Drawing

The Representation major focuses on painting, drawing and installations. Teaching is centred on the individual approach of each student and develops in a custom-made and flowing relationship.

While giving students plenty of autonomy, the work dynamic focuses on dialogue and the regular presence of students and teachers in the studios. Workshops, trips and collective experiences complete the teaching programme, which also includes specific support for the creation of quality portfolios.

Fine Arts - Work.Master Contemporary Artistic Practices

image d'illustration © Zoé Aubry

The Work.Master programme – part of HEAD Genève’s Visual Arts Department – is a two-year MFA programme devoted to multi-disciplinary, studio-based, contemporary artistic practices.

As an incessantly evolving programme, Work.Master dares to take risks and proposes diverse formats which encourage experiment, exchange, and sharing, in order to challenge and develop the participants’ practice over the course of two years. As well as to reflect on the changing conditions of the arts with an increasing emphasis on diversity, post- and de-colonial discourses, climate change and rapidly changing technologies.

Admission requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification, and successful completion of the entrance examination.

Registration deadline

25 March 2025

Fees for Swiss students

(Swiss nationality, resident in Switzerland for tax purposes, or cross-border commuter status)
CHF 775.- per semester

Fees for foreign students

CHF 1125.- par semester

Duration

4 semesters

Credits

120 ECTS

Professional prospects:

Freelance artist, artistic director, cultural interpreter, curator, art critic, teacher, researcher, performer, stage manager, scenographer, video maker

Master in Fine arts, CCC - Critical Curatorial Cybermedia - Curatorial and research practices

image d'illustration © Victor Berthoud

The CCC - Critical Curatorial Cybermedia Master of the of the Visual Arts Department at HEAD Genève is a research program. It is based on the porosity and transversality between artistic and curatorial practices, and on the forms of public sharing, knowledge production, circulation, and dissemination that research through art generates. Drawing on artistic and curatorial investigative methodologies, the program invites students to engage in individual and collective research projects, aimed as much at the art scene as at the academic and scientific world, or even civil society. The program's dual artistic and curatorial address determines the need for transdisciplinarity in its pedagogy, with a strong emphasis on establishing a critical dialogue with the humanities and sciences through the prism of decolonial, intersectional feminist and queer theories. 

Each year, the CCC Public Seminar offers a cross-disciplinary platform to explore a particular theme in greater depth. In 2023/24, the Research (F)acts series addresses scenarios of aesthetic inquiry in artistic and curatorial research practices.

Admission requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification, and successful completion of the entrance examination.

Registration deadline

25 March 2025

Fees for Swiss students

(Swiss nationality, resident in Switzerland for tax purposes, or cross-border commuter status)
CHF 775 per semester

Fees for foreign students

CHF 1125 per semester

Duration

4 semesters

Credits

120 ECTS

Professional prospects:

freelance artist, artistic director, ultural interpreter, curator, art ritic, teacher, researcher, performer, tage manager, scenographer, video maker

Master TRANS Socially Engaged Artistic Practices

image d'illustration © Greg Clément

TRANSform Master provides a practical and reflective framework for those who want to develop socially committed artistic practices based on forms of co-creation with people who do not define themselves as artists, and whose horizon is social transformation. Alternating between collective work and personal practice, the Master's program trains artists to develop politically situated, sustainable and ethical practices, drawing in particular on critical and feminist pedagogies.

Admission requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification, and successful completion of the entrance examination.

Registration deadline

25 mars 2025

Fees for Swiss students

(Swiss nationality, resident in Switzerland for tax purposes, or cross-border commuter status)
CHF 775.- per semester

Fees for foreign students

CHF 1125.- per semester

Duration

4 semesters

Credits

120 ECTS

Professional prospects:

freelance artist, artistic director, cultural interpreter, curator, art critic, teacher, researcher, performer, stage manager, scenographer, video maker

The meetings with the various lecturers brought me a lot. The evaluation system, with no grades, in participatory discussion sessions, is very stimulating. Collective work and reflection are encouraged.

Isabel Guerrero, 35, TRANS MA graduate, 2018

Projects Fine Arts

Mixed Feelings

de Curators Vanessa Cimorelli and Cecilia Moya Rivera are proposing an invitational exhibition featuring graduates

Grand Tour 2024

Just in Time

de Master CCC - Critical Curatorial Cybermedia

P.A.G.E.S., ART BOOK FAIR

de P.A.G.E.S., Geneva Print & Art Book Fair

For three days, playfulness, creativity and sometimes nostalgia reigned over the Cube during this 2024 edition, entirely dedicated to the theme of childhood. More than a hundred exhibitors from the publishing world, workshops for young and old, and intimate meetings with industry professionals punctuated these three days, welcoming over 1,500 visitors.

Fine Arts Videos

Les arts visuels à la HEAD – Genève