Dorothée Elisa Baumann’s art education began in 2002 at the School of Fine Art Photography in Vevey, Switzerland. She was concurrently invited to participate in international exhibitions while still student: Face You, Musée de l’Elysée & Hayward Gallery London, Projection Swiss Young Talent Award. During her first experimental years as a student, she explored themes such as water, landscape and portrait photography. She continued her studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Geneva where she graduated in 2012 with a Master in Contemporary Art Practice (HEAD), with honors. Dorothée Elisa’s practice then expanded through video works, installations and actions in public space. She became an interdisciplinary artist working on long-term projects with holistic methods (in-situ, installation, video, sound, archival practice, writing).
Her first long-term project explored knowledge production through in situ artworks and interdisciplinary methods over three years in a center for basic research in cognitive neuroscience in Geneva (Pleasure Arousal Dominance). She transformed the exhibition space in a what she calls a ‘resonant space’ in chorus with folk practices of energy work and practices of expanded consciousness (aura photography), where visitors confuse and blur the exhibition with two ontologies of knowledge production, leaving the viewer with the dilemma of finding their own truth. Her project won the international critics award Voix Off Arles France. The first solo exhibition of Pleasure Arousal Dominance was presented at CPG Centre de la photographie Genève in 2012. Her first monograph was published by Editions CPG/Les presses du reel (France) in 2017. She was simultaneously working part-time as the official picture editor for the City of Geneva and initiated the exhibition Vis-à-Vis in public spaces in Geneva as artistic consultant in 2014.
Baumann’s next projects were Take A Better Picture along with her art manifesto of the same name. The works of this phase were shown in a solo exhibition (Centre Paquart) and at multiple venues (Juraplatz, Noorderlicht Festival, CPG, Fotomuseum Winterthur). What followed was engagement as an artist in a PhD at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bern. The current research: Unlearning For The Commons is a combination of her scientific PhD work and her art practice. Dorothée Elisa identifies her art practice today closest to the position of ecofeminism. She does not like categories and believes Life is a constant process of transformation.
