Jelena Martinovic

Following an international call for applications, the management of EDHEA, in conjunction with an expert committee, has appointed Dr Jelena Martinovic as the new head of the Institute of Fine Arts (IRAV) of EDHEA. The research institute, which is active at national and international level, is one of the cornerstones of the development strategy of the School of Art.

Jelena Martinovic will take over as the head of EDHEA’s Institute of Fine Arts on September 15, 2021. She will be responsible for managing research projects and for developing interdisciplinary and cross-cutting partnerships with academic and institutional partners in Switzerland and abroad. She will also be in charge of promoting the research skills of students and professors, developing certificate programmes and contributing to the promotion of PhD programmes in Fine Arts.

Born in 1981 in the canton of Zurich, Jelena Martinovic studied social and political sciences at the University of Lausanne and visual arts at the HEAD in Geneva. After having completed her PhD in history of medicine at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne, she worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University and was an affiliated scholar at Hong Kong University and the University College London.

Ms Martinovic is not only passionate about art, but also about research and pedagogy and has a solid professional experience. She was a guest lecturer at Goldsmiths University London, Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) in Rio de Janeiro, HEAD Geneva, the University of Lausanne, the Hochschule der Künste Bern/Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee and the Kunstuniversität Linz. She was also appointed Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and worked as a SNSF senior researcher on the Mind Control project of HEAD Geneva. She has published numerous articles and essays in the art press, exhibition catalogues and academic journals.

Her work has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the UCL Global Engagement Funds, the Société Académique Vaudoise and the FMAC. Jelena Martinovic was also an award-winning artist (Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Zurich) and participated in international exhibitions and artist-in-residence programmes (SOMA Summer in Mexico City, Pro Helvetia Cape Town and Johannesburg, Bibliothèque Kandinsky’s Summer School at Centre Pompidou in Paris). She sat as jury member for the Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) programme at MIT Cambridge and was a faculty member at the Summer Academy of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma/HEAD Geneva.

The IRAV is member of the HES-SO centre of excellence for art and design and works closely with the R&D departments of HEAD-Geneva, ECAL and the research unit conservation-restoration of ACR-Neuchâtel. The Institute carries out theoretical and applied research projects and conducts creative research, which is specific to schools of art.

The EDHEA is looking forward to a creative and dynamic collaboration with Jelena Martinovic. We express our gratitude to Alain Antille, who has been head of the Institute since 2004.