Giorgio Zeno Graf
CV

works with sculpture, printmaking and installation using recycled materials and everyday objects. His research focuses on disused materials, exploring their ecological, historical and symbolic connections. Through a process that intertwines materiality, gesture and context, he develops new collective narratives linked to themes such as consumption, urban occupation and transformation.

He won the First Prize in “Le stanze dell'arte – Premio giovani artisti Genesi creativa” at the M.A.X. Museo di Chiasso (2020), and has exhibited in group exhibitions at Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2023), Bissone Arte 22 (2022), Spazio Fervida, Lugano (2024), and Castelgrande, Bellinzona (2025).




  WorkYear
SUDARIO2025
CORPO A CORPO2025
CONSUMO MODULARE V2024
CONTRONATURA2024
CRÖISC
2023

GREBEL
2023

BOCION (SYMBIOTIC TERRITORY)
2023

TERRITORY
2023

HABIT II
2022

HABIT I
2022

CONSUMO MODULARE IV
2022

CONSUMO MODULARE III 2022
CONSUMO MODULARE II 2022
CONSUMO MODULARE I 2022
ALFALFA (MEDICAGO SATIVA) 2021
STILL LIFE serie
2020

UN PENSIERO TI SI ALLACCIA
2019

KÖRPERSPRACHE, KÖRPERBILD II
2019

GREBEL2023



2023
Felted wool from Ticino
21 × 30 × 3 cm
Installation view: Istituto Svizzero, Roma. Detail with photocopied manifestos.
Cröisc e Grebel

The communities residing in the valleys and alpine regions once held a profound connection to their ancestral and pagan traditions. Their way of life was intricately woven into the fabric of their natural surroundings, creating a symbiotic relationship with the ecosystem they inhabited. Their existence was guided by a profound wisdom, rooted in practices that harmonized human life with the Earth's resources, all while maintaining a delicate balance.

These practices were inherently tied to the rhythms of nature, giving rise to a rich cultural heritage deeply intertwined with the cycles of the natural world. This connection led to the creation of objects and structures that mirrored and drew inspiration from the organic shapes found in their environment. Consequently, when the Christian religion made its way into these regions, introducing imposing stone towers that seemed to stretch towards the heavens, some members of these communities who resisted this cultural shift sought refuge in the remote corners of their territory.

In folklore, these resilient individuals were often depicted as witches and malevolent beings, invoking fear among the villagers. Yet, these same people possessed invaluable knowledge about resource utilization, understanding the benefits of specific organisms and practices in food production. This knowledge was highly sought after by the villagers, even as they clung to their enduring legends.







Installation view with sculptural works from Ceylan Öztrük and the other manifestos
Istituto Svizzero, Roma
Pictures: Daniele Molajoli

Poetry for revolutions

A Group Show with Manifestos and Proposals.
A collaboration project between Istituto Svizzero (Rome) and Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich).

The group exhibition brings together manifestos by fifteen artists – one contribution each for Zurich and Rome, some identical, some slightly different. The content and formal characteristics are diverse. They deal with the ecological crisis, the power of language or the pharmaceutical industry, the handling of ideologies or resources, longings in dystopian times, collective imaginations and identitarian attributions.

Some of the manifestos are poetic, abstract, others prosaic, concrete. They are texts, drawings, photographs or sculptures. In both institutions, the manifestos are additionally available photocopied on Ceylan Öztrük‘s «Choreographed Manifestos» sculptures, which allow the papers to glide along the walls like leaflets. The artist is interested in how information formally circulates and who feels empowered to share what knowledge. Visitors can take the manifestos with them and take them to the streets.



About the title

Proximity between the earth (geological conformation of the ground: deep ‘folds’, inlets and descents) and the human body (wrinkled, hollowed, shrunken body)

Cröisc:
Croisc= man of awkward and miserable form (Faido)
Cröiscett = dwarf (Calpiogna)
Cröisc = wild people, resembling man but hairy, without clothes
Ca do la cröisca = the witch's house (Corzoneso)
Burele di croisc = large rock jutting out of the earth in which a cave is formed, in which, it is said, pagans lived (Chironico)
Ca di crüsc = cave or cavern where dwarf beings (spirits of fantasy) were believed to live (Cavagnago)
Ca di cröisc = houses of the pagans (Olivone)
Crèinsc = strange beings, with tied, shrunken fingers, they lived in the mountains; physically deformed, they dragged themselves along the ground, they asked people for bread. (Moleno)

Grebal:
Greban = Ignorant (Taverne)
Greban = stubborn? (Lugano)
Grèbal = bare barren ground (Faido)
Sgremini = almost uncultivated land (Malcantone)
Sgrèban = stony meadow, unproductive land

Swiss German “Grebel” = Körperlich oder moralisch hässlicher, ekelhafter Mensch / Physically or morally ugly, disgusting person



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