Yves Netzhammer
Born in 1970.
Yves Netzhammer has developed a multimedia practice centred on the moving image and the spatial staging of objects and projections. Initially trained as a building draughtsman, he completed a four-year apprenticeship beginning at the age of sixteen.
He subsequently attended a preparatory course at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich in 1990, before embarking in 1991 on a course of study in «visuelle Gestaltung», from which he graduated in 1995. Emerging from a regional trajectory, he grew up primarily in Schaffhausen (with Diessenhofen mentioned in certain sources) and turned to visual practices following his initial training. He currently lives and works in Zürich.
Netzhammers production combines video installations and video projections, three-dimensional objects, drawings («Strichzeichnungen») and digital animations, as well as interventions tailored to exhibition spaces. Documented milestones in his career include the Kunsthalle Bremen in 2005, Switzerland’s representation at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 (a project entitled «Die Subjektivierung der Wiederholung», with Christine Streuli according to the source), and the exhibition «Das Reservat der Nachteile» at the Kunstmuseum Bern in 2010.
His production is accompanied by editorial activity: publications are listed from as early as 1997 and 1999 in exhibition catalogues and books devoted to his work. Since September 2006, he has also published online in the Journal für Kunst, Sex und Mathematik. Among his graphic interventions, he co-designed the «Schokolade-Briefmarke» for the Swiss Post in 2001 with Ralph Schraivogel.
More recently, Yves Netzhammer received the Pax Art Award 2026, endowed with 30'000 francs. In May 2026, he was also awarded the Film Prize of the Basel region for his first feature-length animated film, Reise der Schatten. This distinction highlights the extension of his practice into feature-length animation while continuing his investigation of the moving image and projection devices.
Based in Zürich, his trajectory brings together institutional exhibitions, online publications and graphic projects, as documented in the material reproduced above.
