BIOGRAPHY
Aurèle Ferrier is a visual artist who works with film. His practice is defined by a pared-down aesthetic and a documentary sensibility, exploring the complex interplay between natural and built environments. He investigates how urbanization and human interventions alter spatial experience, reshaping landscapes, cities, and the ways we inhabit them. His works invite contemplative reflection on the physical and psychological dimensions of these transformations – and how they shape our perception of constructed space.
His films and installations have been shown internationally at renowned festivals and institutions including IDFA (Amsterdam), Rencontres Internationales (Paris/Berlin), MACRO (Rome), Image Forum (Tokyo), Jameel Arts Centre (Dubai), Anthology Film Archives (New York), Open City Documentary Festival (London), and the City Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima).
STUDIES
2014 MA Fine Arts, Zurich University of the Arts
2004 BA Theatre, Leading Artist, Zurich University of the Arts
2003 Exchange Program, Experimental Theatre Wing, Tisch School, New York University
SELECTED AWARDS AND GRANTS
2021 Fine Arts Grant, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Zurich
2021 Weitblick – trailer Ruhr Prize, Blicke Filmfestival des Ruhrgebiet, Bochum
2021 Fine Arts Grant, Freiraumstipendium, Canton of Zurich
2020 First Prize, In Out Festival, Laznia Center of Contemporary Art, Gdansk
2019 Fine Arts Grant, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Zurich
2018 Best Video Artwork, Madatac, Madrid
2018 Formal Innovation Prize, Eurovideo, Vidéographies Int. Video Art Association, Liège
2017 Fine Arts Grant, Canton of Zurich
2017 Winner Swiss Competition, Videoex Int. Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich
2016 Grand Jury Award, Best Experimental Short, Slamdance Film Festival, Park City
2016 Fine Arts Grant, Canton of St. Gallen
2016 Fine Arts Grant, UBS Culture Foundation, Zurich
2015 Best Foreign Experimental Film, 24th Berkeley Video and Film Festival, Berkeley
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVALS
2024 Traversing Landscapes, Night School / Moving Image, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
2022 Urban Stories, Cinemateca do Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro
2021 Heimspiel, Kunsthaus Glarus
2021 The Original, the Non-place and the Copy, Architecture Film Festival London
2021 Current Situation Exhibition, Laznia Center of Contemporary Art, Gdansk
2021 Internacional de Videoarte, Museo MARCO La Boca, Buenos Aires
2020 Anthropocene’s Interface, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens
2020 SF Urban Film Fest, San Francisco
2019 Rencontres Internationales – Contemporary Moving Images, Paris/Berlin
2019 VP Kyoto – Image Forum, Tokyo
2019 NewFilmmakers – Anthology Film Archives, New York
2019 Arquiteturas Film Festival, Lisbon
2019 A Window to the World, City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
2019 Cairo Video Festival, Cairo
2019 Biennale d’art vidéo et performance /si:n/, Ramallah
2019 Video Program, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome
2019 Human-Free Earth, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
2018 Open City Documentary Festival, London
2018 33rd Videoformes – Video Art & Digital Cultures, Clermont-Ferrand
2018 31es Instants Vidéo, Marseille
2018 Eurovideo / Vidéographies, Liège
2018 Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Hawick
2018 25th Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago
2017 30th IDFA, Paradocs, Amsterdam
2017 52nd Solothurn Film Festival, Solothurn
2017 Werkschau, Fine Arts Grants of Canton Zurich, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
2017 Fine Arts Grant Exhibition, City of Zurich, Helmhaus, Zurich
2017 Videoex – International Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich
2016 Rencontres Internationales – Contemporary Moving Images, Paris/Berlin
2016 Kumu Art Film Festival, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn
2016 Infrastructures (solo), Centre de Création en Arts Médiatiques, Québec
2015 Arkipel – International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Jakarta
COLLECTIONS
Collection Bosshard, Rapperswil-Jona
Collection Canton St.Gallen
Credit Suisse Art Collection, Zurich
TALKS, TEACHING & JURY WORK
2025 Jury board, 27th Videoex International Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich
2020 Co-founder Artists’ Film Collective (association and platform), Zurich
2019 Between Art and Cinema, seminar, Master Fine Arts, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich
2019 Meet the Artist, Kino Xenix, Zürich
2018 Guest lecture, Beijing Academy of Creative Arts, Beijing
2018 Video: Traces, Spaces & Circulations, seminar in the context of ‚How To…’, Master Fine Arts, Zurich University of the Arts, Zurich
2018 Jury board, 20th Videoex International Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich
2018 Research encounter, Maritime Poetics: from Coast to Hinterland, Corner College, Zurich
2017 Guest lecture, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), as part of A Short Film History for Architects: Spatial Concepts in Film and Architecture, Professorship: Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer, with Dr. Marcel Bächtiger, Zurich
2014 – 2021 Talks and Symposia at various festivals, i.a. 30th IDFA, Amsterdam
SELECTED PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
Swiss Films, Line-Up 2025
Mubi, The Future Perfect: Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today on Urban Possibilities, Oct 4, 2018
Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival: 2018 Report, The Skinny, May 15, 2018
Jury Statement, Videoex Int. Experimental Film & Video Festival 2017
Swiss Films, Short Film Catalogue 2017, p.30
Transitions, Swiss Films
Die Anarchie steckt im Heizkörper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 28, 2017
Aurèle Ferrier sucht nach der Leere, St.Galler Tagblatt, July 27, 2016
Interview in Stigmart Videofocus Biennal Edition 2015, p.102
and exhibition/festival catalogues
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
Cine-Club Perla-Mode since 2012, together with his friends Anna Hilti (artist), Krispin Hée (graphic designer), Andreas Müller (filmmaker), Thomas Galler (artist)
Screenings and talks with filmmakers and artists, among others with Renzo Martens & Lukas Bärfuss, Hans Witschi, Melissa Dullius & Gustavo Jahn, Christian Schocher, Marcel Gisler, Thomas Imbach, Gisela Storch-Pestalozza, Kaleo La Belle, Samir Ramdani, Cyril Schäublin & Silvan Hiller, Benjamin Heisenberg
Supported by the City of Zurich
PROJECT AND TRAVEL GRANTS / INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
Consulates General of Switzerland in Los Angeles, Santiago de Chile, Madrid, Mexico City, Sydney, Beijing
Arts Council Canton St. Gallen
Arts Council Canton Zürich
Arts Council City of Zurich
Pro Helvetia Cairo
Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation
Hibou Foundation
Foundation Anne-Marie Schindler
Volkart Foundation
Georg und Josi Guggenheim Foundation
Else v. Sick Foundation
Erna und Curt Burgauer Foundation
Swiss Films
Olga und Ernst Gubler-Hablützel Foundation
Gwärtler Foundation
Georges und Jenny Bloch Foundation
Dr. Adolf Streuli-Foundation
Steo Foundation
Catholic Media Centre (film support)
Casinelli Vogel Foundation
Hedwig Scherrer Foundation
Patronage Fund for Young Swiss Artists
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
All works in DCP 2K (Claws also in DCP 4K), 5.1 surround – editions of 5 + 1AP
Trilogy: Human-made Landscapes
2025 Claws, 38 min, no dialogue
2017 Transitions, 13 min, no dialogue
2014 Infrastructures, 23 min, no dialogue
Other Works
2027 Vögel (in progress), 30 min, with dialogue
2016 Old Mill, 6 min, no dialogue
2014 Desert Talks, 30 min, with dialogue