Congratulations to Peilian Li, a graduate of ECAL's Bachelor and Master Fine Arts, who has been awarded one of the Leenaards 2025 Foundation's 2025 Cultural Grants for her remarkable career and unique creative approach.
The Leenaards Foundation supports artists whose work contributes to this cultural vitality. Peilian Li
, graduate of the ECAL Bachelor and Master in Visual Arts, has been awarded the 2025 Leenaards Cultural Prize.
ECAL warmly congratulates visual artist Peilian Li
, an ECAL graduate, who was awarded one of eight 2025 Cultural Grants by the Leenaards Foundation to emerging artists in September 2025.
These grants are intended to enable creators to reach the next level in their careers by enabling them to carry out a personal project that contributes to their artistic development. Each grant is worth CHF 50,000 and is awarded annually to artists selected (by invitation) by the Cultural Grants and Awards Jury.
A graduate of ECAL Bachelor's and Master's degree in Fine Arts, Peilian Li is a visual artist and writer based in French-speaking Switzerland since 2016. Born in China, she came to live in Switzerland, in Ticino, at the age of 10, before settling down. Her artistic practice is not limited to a specific medium or form: Peilian Li explores a variety of formats and creates spaces conducive to the emergence of narratives, places of listening and attention where ideas can emerge freely and thoughts can circulate. For her, creating is not simply painting or building an installation, but seeking a playground, a place where one can feel both calm and curious.
Since 2022, she has been developing research on artificial intelligence (AI), addressing its moral, philosophical, social and spiritual dimensions. She is interested in weak links, digital disembodiment, the relationship between individual and collective memory, and the poetic forms that AI-related creations can take.
Her process often begins with an intimate sharing of personal memories, which then expands into a more global approach integrating scientific research and in situ interventions. Through her work, Peilian Li tells stories in which listening, perception and intuition play a fundamental role. She follows signals, coincidences and details, convinced that what she notices is worth pursuing.