The Art Institute — with gender and nature is a community constituted by artists-teachers and artists-students.
The Institute Art Gender Nature is dedicated to the understanding of an art practice in entanglement with the values of diversity, interspecies coexistence, social justice and love. The practice is understood as a substance that questions materiality, technologies and different knowledges. Art deals with experience and experience is an immediate way to understand our relations to the world – to nature, to all forms of life. Experience is, as well, the realm of the senses, not only the eyes, but synchronically all the organs that made us part of nature. Art is the place that renders evident that Modern science and technology must coexist with indigenous and ancient knowledges. Why? Because the future of a post-colonial society depends on our ability to relate to very different thought systems and to shelter and care for the values of life. The Institute Art Gender Nature wants to be the place where to exercise this ability, the place that performs a trust in artists and art, that, hopefully, would be transferred to our society.
The name "Institute Art Gender Nature" means many things. It stands for the complex history of how a place emerges in which artists are teachers. A place where practice defines the way we think, how we make decisions and the discussions as to what "doing and making" in art actually means. The name discloses in a very specific way what collective learning means.
Chus Martínez, Head of the Institute Art Gender Nature
Degree programmes
Bachelor of Arts
Fine Arts
Studying Fine Arts fosters the develop of a distinct, individual artistic position. In the studio, in workshops, in project work and in the context of exhibitions students gradually develop their own artistic language.
- Studying mode
- Full-time
- Teaching language
- German
- Place
- Basel
- Duration
- 6 Semester
- Next start
- 14.9.2026
Master of Arts
Fine Arts
The masterprogramme focuses on an in-depth examination of the students’ artistic practice. By means of reflection they advance their practice and relate it to the current as well as historical art context.
- Studying mode
- Full-time
- Teaching language
- English
- Place
- Basel
- Duration
- 4 Semester
- Next start
- 14.9.2026
Continuing education
CAS
Art & Peace
How can art become a force for peace? This programme explores the potential of artistic practice in conflict transformation, community building, and social healing. Through theory, dialogue, and creative action, you develop tools to engage with complex global challenges in ethical and imaginative ways.
- Fee
- CHF 6'750
- Teaching language
- English
- Place
- Basel
- Next start
- On request
Module
The Multispecies Spaces Lab
The Multispecies Spaces Lab test new practices that transform our relationship with the planet. The 7-day intensive course, a 5-day course followed by a 2-day exhibition program, establishes a practice-oriented laboratory that mobilizes the interdisciplinary capacities of architecture and art.
- Fee
- CHF 900
- Teaching language
- English
- Place
- Basel
- Duration
- 1 week
- Next start
- 24.8.2026
Research
Plants_Intelligence. Learning like a Plant.
To the project website
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
- Research field
- More-than-human aesthetics
CAPACIDADES
CAPACIDADES (25 de Abril / 6 de Maio) is a PhD project combining cultural studies and artistic methods to explore the subjects of decolonisation processes and migration (PALOP, Portugal, Switzerland) as consequences of geopolitical trauma through an ecological and postcolonial perspective.
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
- Research field
- More-than-human aesthetics
Digital Storytelling with Plants
Stories and memories of plants travel with us and are shaped by culture and society. In this project, young people are invited to join us in producing “digital plant stories” and sharing them on social media.
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
- Research field
- Art, science, and technology
Research Responsible
Dr. Yvonne Volkart
Head of Research, lecturer bachelor and master
- Phone
- +41 61 228 40 77 (Central office)
- yvonne.volkart@fhnw.ch
Labs
Corona Cinema
Corona Cinema is an online platform that was launched by the Institute of Art during the difficult times of the Covid pandemic in the spring of 2020 for presenting new cinematic contributions, but also as a response to the then-prevalent situation, and in the sense of a new, long-term international project.
Womxn Center
The Womxn Center for Excellence is a think tank with the task of assessing, developing, and advancing a new social language and methodology in order to better understand the role of women in art, culture, science, and technology, in other words, in all fields of knowledge that feed in to culture today.
Art is Ocean
In the spring of 2018 we launched a new series of seminars, workshops, public lectures, and symposia focussing on the theme of oceans. The series reflected the growing interest in the research and experience of oceans and how artists explore nature and inquire into the scientific disciplines concerned with the natural world.
Projects (DE)
Promise No Promises!
Eine Podcastserie des Institut Kunst und des Instituto Susch / Art Stations Foundation CH
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
Corona Kino
Als Reaktion auf die aktuelle Situation, aber auch als langfristiges und international angelegtes Projekt hat das Institut Kunst HGK FHNW die digitale Plattform Corona Kino lanciert, auf der periodisch neue Beiträge aufgeschaltet werden.
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
Diplomausstellungen
Die Tatsache, dass die Abschlussausstellung des Institut Kunst jeweils in einer Kunstinstitution zu Gast ist – 2019 bereits zum vierten Mal im Kunsthaus Baselland – und die Zusammenarbeit von Chus Martínez mit Gastkurator*innen, spiegelt die Besonderheit dieses Moments in der Ausbildung von Künstler*innen wider:
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
Publications
Publication
Wild Paper Nr. 29 – Joshua Simon: Moses in Cairo
In der 29. Ausgabe der Wild Papers aus dem Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN) der HGK Basel ruft der Autor und Kurator Joshua Simon anlässlich der Eröffnung des Grand Egyptian Museum in Kairo zur Rückführung historischer ägyptischer Artefakte auf.
- Date
- 1.6.2026
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
Publication
Wild Paper Nr. 28 – Yarema Malashchuk & Roman Khimei: Drehbuch für einen Film über Snake Island
Die 28. Ausgabe der Wild Papers aus dem Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN) der HGK Basel präsentiert ein unveröffentlichtes Drehbuch von Yarema Malashchuk und Roman Khimei für einen unveröffentlichten Film über die ukrainische Schlangeninsel.
- Date
- 27.4.2026
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
Publication
Neue Podcast-Folge mit Laurence Rassel: «We Could Not Resist That Call»
«We Could Not Resist That Call» – die 31. Folge der Podcast-Reihe «The Tale and the Tongue» des Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN) der HGK Basel – basiert auf einem Gespräch mit der Cyberfeministin Laurence Rassel.
- Date
- 25.3.2026
- Institute
- Institute of Art Gender Nature
Workshops IAGN
Contact & Team
Prof. Dr. Chus Martínez
Head of the Institute Art Gender Nature
- Phone
- +41 61 228 41 62
- chus.martinez@fhnw.ch
Team Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN)
- Phone
- +41 61 228 40 77 (Central office)
- info.iagn.hgk@fhnw.ch
Getting there
Postal address
Visitor and delivery address
Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN)
FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
Basel Academy of Art and Design
Institute Art Gender Nature (IAGN)
Building: A 1.10
Oslo-Strasse 3
CH - 4142 Münchenstein near Basel