Helvetia Art Prize winner Virginie Sistek at the Liste Art FairBasel 2025
The 2024 Helvetia Art Prize went to Virginie Sistek. This means the artist and graduate of the Art Nature Gender master's programme at Basel's University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland has the opportunity to exhibit her works at this year's Liste Art Fair Basel. In her interdisciplinary practice, Virginie Sistek addresses social power relations, forms of consensus and contradictions, and the mechanisms of social role models. With a subtle sense of humour and staging, she negotiates complex themes in precisely composed settings, opening up spaces for reflection and irritation.
16.06.2025 | Media releases
Virginie Sistek's works often arise from concrete social situations, which she translates with a precise artistic idiom. Her performances, installations and videos explore the ways in which social dynamics, power relations and cultural codes shape the body, relationships and collective experiences. They are particularly interested in mechanisms of subjugation, their transmission and legitimisation over time, and strategies of resistance. In her works, she approaches these themes with a subversive lightness that makes complexity understandable rather than reducing it. Sistek's productions are as humorous as they are profound.
At the intersection of art and entertainment
For the Liste Art Fair Basel 2025, Virginie Sistek is presenting a new group of works that consciously operate at the interface between contemporary art and entertainment. These works straddle the border between stage and backdrop, between public performance and places of retreat. Bat-like sculptures and an illusionistic triptych create an in-between moment in which art and entertainment overlap and challenge each other. With a keen feel for ambivalence, Sistek creates a space in which meanings are not fixed, but kept in motion – a place where the uncertain becomes visible.
A leg-up as part of its commitment to art
With the Art Prize, Helvetia Insurance supports young artists at the beginning of their career. The Helvetia Art Prize is therefore aimed at graduates of Swiss universities of applied sciences in fine art and media art. The prize provides a double leg-up: the winners receive prize money of CHF 15,000 as well as the opportunity to introduce themselves to a wider public in the ensuing year with a curated solo exhibition.
Committed to art
The Helvetia Art Prize is a key aspect of the international insurance group's commitment to art. The prize has been awarded annually since 2004. Initially known as the Nationale Suisse Art Prize, since the merger of Helvetia and Nationale Suisse it is now in its 11th iteration as the Helvetia Art Prize. Helvetia, which also insures art, has one of the most important collections of contemporary Swiss art, stretching back more than 80 years. The collection focuses on paintings, drawings and photography. Since 2015, Helvetia has also had its own public exhibition space, the Helvetia Art Foyer at its headquarters in Basel. This space hosts thematic exhibitions, which include works from the group's own collection, as well as solo shows from individual artists.
At the intersection of art and entertainment
For the Liste Art Fair Basel 2025, Virginie Sistek is presenting a new group of works that consciously operate at the interface between contemporary art and entertainment. These works straddle the border between stage and backdrop, between public performance and places of retreat. Bat-like sculptures and an illusionistic triptych create an in-between moment in which art and entertainment overlap and challenge each other. With a keen feel for ambivalence, Sistek creates a space in which meanings are not fixed, but kept in motion – a place where the uncertain becomes visible.
A leg-up as part of its commitment to art
With the Art Prize, Helvetia Insurance supports young artists at the beginning of their career. The Helvetia Art Prize is therefore aimed at graduates of Swiss universities of applied sciences in fine art and media art. The prize provides a double leg-up: the winners receive prize money of CHF 15,000 as well as the opportunity to introduce themselves to a wider public in the ensuing year with a curated solo exhibition.
Committed to art
The Helvetia Art Prize is a key aspect of the international insurance group's commitment to art. The prize has been awarded annually since 2004. Initially known as the Nationale Suisse Art Prize, since the merger of Helvetia and Nationale Suisse it is now in its 11th iteration as the Helvetia Art Prize. Helvetia, which also insures art, has one of the most important collections of contemporary Swiss art, stretching back more than 80 years. The collection focuses on paintings, drawings and photography. Since 2015, Helvetia has also had its own public exhibition space, the Helvetia Art Foyer at its headquarters in Basel. This space hosts thematic exhibitions, which include works from the group's own collection, as well as solo shows from individual artists.
Contact information
Eric Zeller
Senior Communication Manager / Press Spokesperson
Phone: +41 58 280 50 33
media.relations@helvetia.ch
Senior Communication Manager / Press Spokesperson
Phone: +41 58 280 50 33
media.relations@helvetia.ch