Instructor, Art Studio
M.A Hochschule der Kunste Bern
B.A Haute École d'Art et Design Genève
Office: Art Studio
Email: mmargnetti@fus.edu
Marta Margnetti is a Swiss contemporary artist, cultural practitioner, and educator. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses installation, drawing, sound and light, sculpture, painting and printmaking. She works with a wide range of materials, including cement, iron, bronze, ceramics, beeswax, wood, cardboard, organic residues, graphite.
Throughout her artistic career, Margnetti has been actively involved in the independent art scene in Ticino. She co-founded the artist-run space Sonnenstube in Lugano and served as its co-curator from 2013 to 2018. Since 2021, she has been part of the duo Fattucchiere, together with curator Giada Olivotto. In this context, they were artists-in-residence at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome. She is also a co-founder of Fervida, a cultural production space in Lugano.
Research interests:
Margnetti’s practice focuses on the creation of domestic geographies and collective, speculative spaces, often evoking events and situations rooted in personal, urban, and rural contexts. She transforms familiar spaces, forms, and materials into charged psychological landscapes, where vulnerability and interpersonal relationships become tangible. Her work investigates different forms of coexistence and collectivity, while also reflecting on the structures, working conditions, and lived realities of the contemporary art field.
At the centre of her research is a subjective experience of the human body in all its complexity—its flesh, ambiguity, fatigue, desire, and emotional dimensions—and its relationship to inhabited space. The domestic environment and the human body are understood as social, psychological, political, and cultural spaces. In this sense, her work explores how the body, memory, intimacy, and the domestic sphere can become spaces of conflict and self-legitimation—sites where personal and collective experiences are articulated, negotiated, and made visible
Solo exhibitions:
2025 | Duetto à mi voix, Villa Bernasconi, Lancy (with Shirin Yousefi)
2024 | Serenata, curated by Giovanni Carmine, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen
2023 | Cuore Mangiato, Guscio di Fiore, Kulturfolger, curated by Sibilla Panzeri, Zurich
Afterglow, Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano
Swiss Embassy in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain: Workshop “Under a Floorboard”
2022 | Anabasi Catabasi, Photobastei, curated by Lorenzo Metzler, Zurich
2021 | Abitare, Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano (with Kaspar Ludwig)
Knuckles Down, Mayday, curated by Eva Maria Knüsel, Basel (with Maude Léonard-Contant)
2020| E improvvisamente scossa da una forza, Manor Prize Ticino, MASI, curated by F. Benini, Lugano
Prometto che, Espace Libre, curated by Andrea Marioni, Biel/Bienne (with Vianney Fivel)
2019 | Galerie Lange+Pult, Zurich (with Alfredo Aceto)
Se Q allora P, Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano
2018 | Art Kisses Design, Boffi Showroom, curated by Michelle Nicol, Zurich
Remiscelata, The Blank Contemporary, Bergamo, Italy
Altitude, Message Salon Embassy, curated by 6900, Zurich (with Daniela Palimariu)
Wasp! Wasp! Wasp!, Galleria Daniele Agostini, Lugano
2016 | What if I Say Goodbye, Lokal-int, Biel/Bienne (with Jurgen Bogle) – Performance
Group exhibition (selection):
2026 | Là où les jours, Centre d’Art de Neuchâtel (CAN), Neuchâtel
Les pierres se souvient du feu, Forde, Geneva
La Regionale, Museo Casorella, Locarno
2025 | Knowing Bodies, Casa Rusca, Locarno, curated by Gioia Dal Molin
Zabrinskie Point, Limbo Space, Geneva
2024 | On Love, Istituto Svizzero di Roma, curated by Gioia Dal Molin, Rome
La scia del Monte ou Les utopistes magnétiques, MBAL, curated by Federica Chiocchettiand Nicoletta Mongini, Le Locle
Arcadia, Fondazione Bally, curated by Vittoria Matarrese, Lugano
Giardino di acclimatazione, Villa dei Cedri, Bellinzona
2023 | Raggiro, Grieder Contemporary Space, curated by Lorenzo Metzler, Como
Luna Lunga, Espace Libre, Biel/Bienne
Swiss Art Awards, Basel
Su sei ruote, Sonnenstube Lugano, Swiss Institute Milan, Forde Geneva, Amore Basel, Kunsthalle Zürich, LAC Lugano
Gelosie, Bex Art, Sculpture Triennial, curated by Eleonore Varone, Bex (with X. Laffely)
The Day After, Palazzina, Basel
2022 | Ostinate, Installation on the First Floor, LAC, MASI Lugano
Sweet Dreams Foundation, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, curated by Lesia Kulchinska, Kaunas, Lithuania
Switch the Witch, La Rada, curated by Tomboys Don’t Cry, Locarno
Sweet Dreams Foundation, Nida Art Colony, curated by Lesia Kulchinska, Nida, Lithuania
La casa ispirata, Swiss Institute Rome, curated by LOCALES, Rome, Italy
Radura, Swiss Institute Rome, curated by Fattucchiere, Rome, Italy
Racconto Grosso, Lateral, curated by Marta Federici and Giulia Crispiani, Rome, Italy
2021 | Party del corpo, Sonnenstube, Lugano
Zurich Surprise, Galerie Lange+Pult, curated by Leila Niederberger and Alfredo Aceto,Zurich
A Beautiful Life, Wallstreet, Fribourg
Art Môtiers, Open-Air Sculpture Quadrennial, Môtiers
Com’è bello far l’amore, Canale Milva, curated by Giada Olivotto and Camilla Paolino
2020 | Da ieri a oggi, Museo d’Arte, Mendrisio
A Peaceful Planet Is About to Be Born, curated by On Sight/Site
2019 | Autunno, Residenza La Fornace, Spino d’Adda, Italy
Daydreamers Location III, curated by Elisa Rusca, Berlin, Germany
Ceci n’est pas une salle d’exposition, Nordstr. 362, Zurich
2018 | Beehave, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
Caravan, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
Sport, Urgent Paradise, Lausanne
New Swiss Performance Now, Kunsthalle Basel
2017 | Cantonale Berne-Jura, Centre Pasquart, Biel/Bienne
Unter 30: Junge Schweizer Kunst, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano
Open House, Stadt Galerie, Bern
Prize Kiefer Hablitzel, Swiss Art Awards, Basel
Awards and public acquisitions:
2026 | Public Collection, Fonds Cantonal d’Art Contemporain, Geneva
2025 | Public Collection, Art Collection of the Canton of Ticino
Commission for a Swiss Post postage stamp
Artist Edition for VFO (Verein für Originalgraphik), Zurich
2023 | Finalist, Swiss Art Awards, Basel
Public Collection, Museo Villa dei Cedri, Bellinzona
2022 | Public Collection of the Swiss Confederation, Federal Office of Culture
Finalist for a public art commission, Federal Sports Centre Tenero
2020 | Winner of the Manor Art Prize, Lugano
Public Collection, Museo d’Arte della Svizzera Italiana (MASI)
2019 | Public Collection, Museo d’Arte di Mendrisio (MDAM)
Public Collection, Art Collection of the Canton of Ticino
2018 | Winner of the Kiefer Hablitzel Prize, Swiss Art Awards, Basel
Public Collection, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
2016 | Finalist, Che c’è di nuovo Prize, MCA, Lugano
Residencies:
2021–22 | Artist in Residence, Swiss Institute Rome, Italy
2019 | Artist in Residence, Residenza La Fornace, Spino d’Adda
2018 | Artist in Residence, The Blank Residency, VIAVAI+, Bergamo
Artist in Residence, Progetto 6000 & Message Salon, Zurich
Artist in Residence, Via Farini, Milan
Selected Publications:
2022 | La casa ispirata, Swiss Institute Rome
2020 | E improvvisamente scossa da una forza, Casagrande Editions
2018 | Beehave, Kunsthaus Baselland, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna
Fucking Good Art, The Swiss Issue Revisited, Fink Editions
2017 | Unter 30: Junge Schweizer Kunst, Kiefer Hablitzel Prize
2016 | Che c’è di nuovo, Casagrande Editions