Benoit Jeannet

Born in 1991 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Benoît Jeannet is a multidisciplinary artist based in Berlin.

He graduated from HEAD in Geneva, ECAL in Lausanne, and CEPV in Vevey.

Between 2012 and 2019, he developed a documentary photographic practice that gradually evolved into a field of experimentation. His work takes the form of protean images and objects that interact through friction: accumulations, assemblages, collisions. In an environment saturated with representations, Jeannet treats images as unstable materials, fragmenting, displacing, and recomposing them. His works question less what an image shows than what it does: how it acts, distorts, and imposes its own forms of evidence and paradox.

Since 2020, he has mainly focused on oil painting. Without abandoning his earlier concerns, he shifts his attention toward ordinary and intimate motifs, objects, fragments, banal situations, which he approaches as centers of tension. Painting becomes a space of drift, where composition, color, and material generate unpredictable relationships. The resulting images function as narrative triggers whose meaning the artist deliberately chooses not to control.

Alongside his studio practice, Benoît Jeannet teaches at HEAD, ECAL, and CEPV.

Education

 

   2017 – 2019:

MA - visual arts - Work Master / HEAD Geneva University of Art and Design

   2012 – 2015:

BA - photography / ECAL University of Art and Design

   2008 – 2012:

Professional Diploma - photography / CEPV Vevey school of photography

   2007 – 2008:

Preparatory artistic education / CEPV Vevey School of Photography

 

Awards:

 

   2020:

Foam Talent, Foam Museum, Amsterdam

   2019:

Festival Images - Broncolor light Price

   2015:

Prix Photoforum Pasquart

   2012:

Prix Focale - Ville de Nyon

 

Shortlist & Nominations:

 

   2019:

Paul Huf Award, Foam Museum, Amsterdam

Plat(t)form Fotomuseum Winterthur

   2018:

Paul Huf Award, Foam Museum, Amsterdam

   2017:

Paul Huf Award, Foam Museum, Amsterdam

   2016:

Aperture Foundation – Paris Photo Photobook Award

Mack Firstbook Award

   2014:

VFG Nachwuchsförderpreis

2013:

Prix Photoforum PasquArt

2012:

Prix Photoforum PasquArt

2011:

Prix Photoforum PasquArt

 

Exhibitions:

     2026:

“FAVORI“, CACY, Yverdon-les-Bains, CH

“Explosif”, Abstract, Villars-Burquin, CH

“Si les silences ne parlaient pas”, Gallerie C, Neuchâtel, CH

     

     2023:

“Peintres”, CACY, Yverdon-les-Bains, CH

    2022:

“Transmutations”, V5 art space, Neuchâtel, CH

   2021:

Belfast Photo festival, Belfast, IE

Foam Talent, Foam Museum, Amsterdam, NL

Foam Talent, Kühlhaus, Berlin, DE

 “Snack 2” Lange Pult Gallery, Auvernier, CH

No 20, Neuchâtel, CH

 Biennale of contemporary art, Fine Arts Museum, La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH

   2020:

“On Earth”, Foam Museum,Amsterdam, NL

“On Earth”, Foam Museum,Le Lieu Unique, Nantes, FR

“On Earth”, Foam Museum,Les Rencontres de la photographies, Arles, FR

Image Festival, Vevey, CH

“Snack” Lange Pult Gallery, Auvernier, CH

La Fabrik h2, Art space, Monthey, CH

   2019:

A p p roche, Eric Mouchet Gallery, Paris, FR

V5 Art space, Neuchâtel, CH

MBAL Fine Arts Museum of Le Locle - Neuchâtel’s Hospitals, CH

   2016:

Jimei x Arles Photo Festival, Jimei, CI

Eric Mouchet Gallery, Paris, FR

   2015:

Prix PhotoforumPasquArt, Biel, CH

ID-50 Gallery, Geneva, CH

Voies-Off Photo Festival, Arles, FR

   2013:

Prix PhotoforumPasquArt, Biel, CH

   2012:

Focale Gallery, Nyon, CH

VFG Nachwuchsförderpreis, CH

Prix PhotoforumPasquArt, Biel, CH

   2011:

Biennale of contemporary art, Fine Arts Museum, La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH

 

Publication:

 

2018:

«A Geological Index of The Landscape», Mörel Books, London, UK

 

Teaching:

 

2019 - 2021: Workshop at CEPV, Vevey school of photography, CH

2020: Workshop at ECAL, Lausanne University of Arts and Design, CH

2019: Workshop at EAA, Art school of La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH

2016 - 2019: Teacher at ECAL, Lausanne University of Arts and Design, CH