Yannick Bonvin Rey
Born in 1966.
Yannick Bonvin Rey presents herself as a cultural mediator, painter and educator, a role that includes an active position at Destination vingt-sept in Geneva. Initially trained as a social educator, she gradually oriented her practice towards mediation and support for the creative process. She lives and works between Geneva and Valais and appears as an active member of Visarte, the professional association of visual artists in Switzerland.
Before devoting herself to teaching and mediation, she worked in social institutions for fifteen years, notably in an emergency shelter for adults, a contact centre for the exercise of visitation rights, and a crisis unit for adolescents. This field experience subsequently led her towards education: she taught for seventeen years at the CFC social of ECASE, has contributed to continuing education at CEFOC since 2017 and, from 2024, to the CAS in cultural mediation at HETSL.
Artistically, her work is distinguished by a marked interest in the notion of place and territory, and by a sensitive engagement with nature; in particular, she explores the shift between real and imagined places. This approach is accompanied by regular collaborations with poetry publishers, bringing images and texts into dialogue in printed formats or artists’ books.
These collaborations include contributions to the poetry collections A l’autre bout des yeux (Eliane Vernay, 2018), Les lacs sous la langue (Marie Ginet, 2020) and Étourdi de soleil (Eva-Maria Berg, L’Atelier des Noyers, 2022). For her artist’s book, she was awarded the Prix BCU in 2022, which resulted in a limited edition mentioned in the sources.
Her presence in public collections is documented: Mairie de Bardonnex (2007) and Collection de la Ville de Sion (2008). Research undertaken in 2011 for the Fondation Les Enfants Papillons, concerning epidermolysis bullosa, also figures among her documented contributions. For 2019, the archives record a presence at the Musée du vin in Sierre, described in the sources as «œuvre ou présence documentaire».
More recently, an artist’s book co-signed with Thierry Raboud is listed at the Médiathèque du Valais (2024), and a joint work (Yannick Bonvin Rey – Thierry Raboud) is noted as having been acquired by the Bibliothèque publique de Neuchâtel in 2025.
Solo exhibitions are announced for 2025, notably at Galerie Marianne Brand in Carouge and at Fondation Louis Moret in Martigny, according to the available references.
Today, she divides her activity between cultural mediation (her role at Destination vingt-sept), teaching and artistic production, pursuing a practice that brings together social intervention, pedagogy and creative work.