ECAL and the Swiss Pavilion at Biennale di Venezia 2026

The exhibition The Unfinished Business of Living Together explores the concept of "vivre-ensemble" through the lens of approaches and perspectives about tolerance and belonging, as well as various forms of social division.

Inspired by the program "Telearena," broadcast on Swiss television in 1978, the project uses homosexuality as a historical entry point to examine how social norms determine who is permitted to speak, revealing broader dynamics regarding the possibilities and tensions inherent to "vivre-ensemble."

By revisiting and reproducing the formal structures of television programs, the exhibition uses montage and installation to raise questions related to media infrastructures. Through art, it also reactivates the archives as a space for debate and active engagement.

The exhibition was conceived by curators Gianmaria Andreetta and Luca Beeler, in collaboration with artist Nina Wakeford, and developed with artists Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance, and Yul Tomatala.

Yul Tomatala is a Geneva-based artist who holds a Bachelor Photography from ECAL and a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from HEAD. His installations combine sculptural elements, photography, and video to explore the interplay between space and image. Conceived in relation to architecture, his works highlight the entropy of a problematic modernity and address various themes related to Western social constructs, particularly their relationship to collective and personal memory.

Miriam Laura Leonardi , who studied photography at GOBELINS (Paris) and earned a Master in Fine Arts from the Zurich University of the Arts, is a faculty member at ECAL for the Bachelor Visual Arts. 

The Unfinished Business of Living Together. Gianmaria Andreetta, Luca Beeler, Yul Tomatala, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance, Nina Wakeford © Del LaGrace Volcano