The artist Ingrid Wildi Merino was born in Santiago de Chile in 1963, and lived in that country till she migrated to Switzerland in 1981, going into political exile because of the dictatorship. After her arrival in Switzerland she worked unskilled jobs for many years. Much later she went on to study arts at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zurich, followed by post-graduate studies at the University of Art and Design Geneva. Since 2005 she has been a professor at the University of Art and Design Geneva. From 2007 to 2009 she was tutor of the section of video, film and new media of the Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart. Since 2009 she has been a professor in Scenic Practices and Visual Culture at the University of Alcalá de Henares in collaboration with the Centre of Studies of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía of Madrid, Spain. As a professor of the University of Geneva, her work researches and explores issues of migration, memory, identity, dislocation, and social and cultural movement. Since 1992 Ingrid Wildi Merino has been invited to exhibit her work in different countries. In 2005 she was invited together with Gianni Motti, Shahryar Nashat and Marco Poloni to represent Switzerland at the Swiss pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale, as part of Shadows Collide With People curated by Stefan Banz; 2006 Telefonica Buenos Aires, Efecto Downey, curated by Justo Pastor Mellado; 2007 L’oeil-écran ou la nouvelle image at Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg, curated by Régis Michel; 2009 7th Mercosul Biennial, Grito e Escuta (Screaming and Listening), Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, invited by Chile, curated by Victoria Noorthoorn, Camilo Yáñez, and Mario Navarro; 2010 Museo de la Solaridad Salvador Allende; 2011 Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Aargau, Switzerland; 2013 Centro Wilfredo Lam, La Havana, Cuba; 2014; Slow Future, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland, curated by Jota Castro; 2015 The Translator’s Voice, Fonds Régional de L'Art Contemporain (FRAC), Lorraine in Metz, France; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MARCO) in Vigo, Spain; and Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum (SFKM) in Førde, Norway, curated by Martin Waldmeier.

Ingrid Wildi Merino received the 2009 Prix Meret Oppenheim, the national art award of Switzerland. From 2007 and 2011 she has been the author and curator of the exhibition project Dislocación. For this exhibition she invited Chilean and European artists to intervene in different museums and institutions in Santiago de Chile, roaming the exhibition to the Museum of Fine Arts of Bern, Switzerland, winning the Swiss Exhibition Award in 2011 for the best exhibition of the year in this country.

http://www.ingridwildimerino.net/