Pascal Schwaighofer lives and works in Zurich (CH) and Ithaca (USA). He graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and is currently a Ph.D. student at the Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, writing a dissertation on the politico-philosophical implications of the swarm, network and multitude, iconically embedded in the “honeybee metaphor.” Schwaighofer’s artistic practice focuses on metaphors, legends and analogies of apparently unrelated narratives, politics, and aesthetics. Recent exhibitions at the Center of Contemporary Art, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. (2019); Kunstmuseum, Olten (2018); Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2017); Villa Bernasconi, Geneva (2017); Kolumba Museum, Cologne (2017); Public Art in Zurich (2016); Kunstmuseum Lucerne (2015); MAGA museum, Gallarate (2015); Aargauer Kunsthaus, (2012); and Kunstmuseum Solothurn, (2011). Solo exhibitions at Museo Vincenzo Vela, Ligornetto (2016); Kolumba Museum, Cologne (2013); the Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2012); Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano (2011); AR/GE kunst, Galerie museum, Bozen/Bolzano. Recent lectures include La classe sterile, with Christian Marazzi, at Museo Vincenzo Vela (2016); The Fable of the Bees, at Performa Festival (2015); Tulipmania, with Jan Verwoert, at Le Foyer, Zurich (2014). He was awarded the Manor Art Prize, Ticino, Switzerland and the Swiss Art Awards (2011). In January 2016 Tulipmania was released, a publication based on a dialogue between Jan Verwoert and Pascal Schwaighofer as an extension of a multi-part work called Economimesis. In 2011 he was selected for the Collection Cahier d’Artiste, a publication series promoted by the Swiss Art Council Pro Helvetia.

His contribution to Polit(t)ico: