Interview with Marianne Burki, Head of the Visual Arts Department of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council

Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, is supporting cultural endeavours of nationwide interest, funded entirely by the Swiss Confederation. The mandate of the Arts Council includes the promotion of Swiss Culture abroad, as well as the encouragement of cultural exchange among Switzerland's linguistic regions. The Arts Council maintains an office in Zurich which evaluates applications for grants for cultural projects, sets up programmes in connection with topical art-related issues and coordinates a network of cultural centres and liaison offices abroad. The Art Council's work is supervised by a Board of Trustees. It is independent in its decision making.
Marianne Burki was appointed Head of the Visual Arts Department at the end of 2005. Prior to her work for Pro Helvetia, she acted as the proactive Director of the Kunsthaus Langenthal, an 'art space', setting up contemporary art exhibitions, and, among others, working on projects on the border between art, design and everyday culture. Prior to that, she worked as the project manager of the catalogue raisonné of the work of Paul Klee at the Paul Klee Foundation.

In retrospect Marianne Burki finds the step from curating and researching towards a policy-oriented practice enriching: "My current position made me understand the functioning of the art system much better than I used to. Of course my job and tasks where very new to me. My role has completely changed. As a curator I absolutely had to follow my own ideas and tastes, in order to enhance the profile of the house I was in charge of, to find interesting themes. Now I have to be aware that every decision influences many artists and institutions in Switzerland. I am really happy that I arrived at the Arts Council with so much practical experience: I know about the struggles of curators and directors, or more generally how to set up an exhibition policy and what a realistic budget is about.

Pro Helvetia works with specialised departments for each discipline. Could you describe the decision-making process between these and the Board of Trustees?

Each department prepares not only the applications for the committee but also prepares strategies and priorities. For instance, if we want to introduce a curatorial exchange programme next year, we write the concept, set up the budget, and present it to our board members. They decide on the strategy within the Foundation's structure. All departments can decide on requests up to CHF 20.000. For anything above, the board of trustees is responsible. The 25 members are elected by the Federal Council, and they represent the various cultures of Switzerland, and the 5 art disciplines: dance, theatre, music, literature and society, and visual arts.

Within the Visual Arts Department, do you mostly develop projects and programmes yourself, or do you predominantly work in external partnership?

Pro Helvetia operates within three main divisions: Funding & Promotion, Programmes and the liaison offices abroad. The Visual Arts Departement is part of the Funding & Promotion division. We have two working fields. Applications on the one hand, where institutions can apply for grants, and our own projects on the other hand, e.g. first monographic publications for artists called 'Cahiers d'Artistes'. We perceive ourselves as facilitators, always collaborating with external partners, never curating ourselves. We try to find matching partners.

Additionally, the departments of the Funding & Promotion division team up in the development of our Programmes. For instance, we work on an exchange project in the context of an international programme called Swiss Chinese Explorations. We offered Swiss electronic arts specialists to go to China, where they receive guidance for research and presentations. In return, we invite Chinese specialists to come to Switzerland, connect them with local curators or other professionals, who on their part introduce them to the local art scene. Furthermore, in 2008, Pro Helvetia launched for example a programme called 'Echos - Folk Culture for Tomorrow'. In such two-year-thematic programmes we raise questions about a subject nationwide and find a new coherent system of funding.

Additionally Pro Helvetia maintains Liaison Offices abroad, operated by small local teams, acting as an intermediary between Switzerland and particular regions.

At the moment we maintain Liaison Offices in Warsaw, in Cape Town, in Cairo, and in New Delhi. Their main aim is to prepare a good ground for Swiss artists abroad, in these selected regions. They initiate projects, for instance: "How to develop dance exchange between India and Switzerland?" They come up with ideas for co-productions and cultural projects, they facilitate residencies for artists, and again, they bring partners together. We actively initiate exchanges but also support projects with know-how and money, e.g. if an Indian curator is applying for a research trip to Switzerland and his/her endeavour is fitting into the projects of the Indian office, he'll receive help and funding.

On the other hand, there are Cultural Centres, such as the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris or the Swiss Institute in New York, facilities with their own exhibition spaces. They act as a springboard into the local cultural scene.

The Cultural Centre in Paris was the first to be installed in 1985, later on, in 1996, an office in Milano opened. Cultural centres are facilities with their own exhibition spaces. They serve as a showcase for Swiss culture and a platform for cultural exchange. Swiss artists frequently regard them as excellent stepping stones into the local cultural scene. The Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris (CCSP) is operated by Pro Helvetia itself. In Italy, the foundation finances the cultural offerings of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma (ISR), which has local branches in Venice and Milan. Activities organised by the Swiss Institute in New York (SINY) are also given substantial financial support. The curators of the Cultural Centers are quite independent. They are assigned to present Swiss artists, but they work more internationally.

The Cultural Centres are based in Europe and New York, while the Liaison Offices introduce Swiss art in newly developing regions. Are these decisions the result of Pro Helvetia's strategic objectives in an economical or political perspective?

Yes, this is intended by our strategy: in its international work, Pro Helvetia uses the instruments of financial support for third-party projects, of residency programmes, liaison offices, programmes, focal points for promotion and cultural centres. These instruments supplement one another. The more differentiated the cultural range and cultural infrastructure in a certain country or region is, the more reticent the Arts Council is in the interpretation of its role. Cultural centres are platforms for presenting contemporary Swiss arts in metropolitan cities of the Western hemisphere. Only there does Pro Helvetia act as producer. Liaison offices initiate artistic collaboration projects and identify partners for guest performances, exhibitions and publications. The liaison offices function as bridgeheads whose location is reassessed after ten years of operation. The networks they form are all connected with the Pro Helvetia Head Office.

On top of that Pro Helvetia has programmes encouraging cultural exchange between Switzerland and a specific country or region of the world. Some of them are created in a joint venture with Presence Switzerland, a body related to Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and responsible for presenting and fostering a positive image of Switzerland abroad.

Presence Switzerland is promoting cultural values with a political mission to work on a positive image of Switzerland. The organisation decided for example to go to China because of the Summer Olympics and to take part in the World Expo in Shanghai. If the opportunity arises for Presence Switzerland to integrate cultural projects, they do so - which can be an interesting platform for us and helps both sides to benefit from synergies. Pro Helvetia, on the other hand, launched its programme "Swiss Chinese Explorations" as a first step to opening a liaison office in China.
In the case of China, both organisations aim to establish a long-term exchange between the Swiss and Chinese cultural scenes. We work independently but support each other wherever it makes sense, eg. in communications or in mentoring cultural projects. Pro Helvetia initiated, for instance, the design exhibition "Chriss&Cross" at the Expo Shanghai 2010, asking Presence Switzerland to include it in the Swiss pavilion. Its content, however, remains in our responsibility.  When we work together with Presence Switzerland, we do not completely mix with them. They don't have any influence on the contents of a project.

When an artist or cultural practitioner from Switzerland is invited to the regions covered by the Liaison Offices it maintains, his or her residency can be supported?

For the regions with Liaison Offices we have an overall Artists in residence programme. We make a call for applications, and both Swiss artists and those living in countries linked with liaison offices can apply. At the moment we focus on opening programmes with our Liaison Offices, making efforts to open it up for curators and organizers, who of course are very important to help giving artists a good platform.

How about cities in regions where Pro Helvetia has no Liaison Offices?

If an artist or curator wants to go for a residency to Rio de Janeiro, or the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam for example, we may fund it but only in the context of an individual application depending very much on the destination of the residency.

In the other Departments new creations can be supported, but not in the Visual Arts Department?

No, the Swiss Arts Council only works in the diffusion of works, mainly supporting exhibitions and publications. Our colleagues at the Federal Office, on the other hand, are responsible for the production of works and the direct support of artists respectively, e.g. with the Swiss Art Awards.

Following the initiative of BAM you are now in Brussels to talk with colleagues from other European funding bodies. How do you see Pro Helvetia's relation to them? Will such a network be useful?

It is really useful for Pro Helvetia to be in such a network, trying to coordinate, and giving a better understanding of European funding systems. You don't need to invent everything yourself. If it is only informal exchange, then you learn from each other and you go back home inspired. In any case, I would be very happy to have more contact with colleagues, of other funding bodies, because then you can, also informally, ask advice, which improves the quality of work. That is one of the purposes of the meeting, to create a stronger network between these main funders. Also there are a lot of common themes, which might even lead to a more active collaboration abroad.