The Société des Arts de Genève is pleased to announce that the Société des Arts de Genève Prize 2025 has been awarded to Shirana Shahbazi, who lives and works in Zurich. The Prize Jury has singled out an artistic career of the first order. Ms. Shahbazi has developed an approach to photography that is unique in the medium. As part of the Prize, the Crosnier Gallery of the Palais de l’Athénée will feature a solo show by this year’s Prize winner in September 2025.
The Jury has decided to award the Société des Arts Prize 2025 to Shirana Shahbazi in recognition of her exceptional practice and unflagging capacity for reinvention. A renowned artist with an international appeal, Ms. Shahbazi has made her mark thanks to a prolific career that transcends national borders to explore creative areas that have proved wonderfully rich and varied in terms of material for her output. Her work displays remarkable conceptual depth with formal qualities that truly set it apart, reflecting the singularity of an art that is both hybrid and multifaceted, one that exists at the crossroads of several disciplines. The 2025 Prize hails her bold and visionary approach, which continues to inspire the contemporary art world.
Shirana Shahbazi
The Iranian-born photographer and visual artist Shirana Shahbazi lives and works in Zurich. She grew up in Germany and studied photography at Zurich’s Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst. Her work stands out for the artist’s ability to mix different aesthetics, cultures, and mediums, in particular photography, painting, and architectural installation. Ms. Shahbazi explores themes like identity, memory and cultural representations through meticulously wrought geometric compositions, portraits and landscapes. Her art questions the limits between reality and perception, and is now part of prestigious collections like the Pompidou Centre in Paris, New York’s MoMA, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, and the Tate Modern in London. She has been awarded a number of prizes, including the 2019 Meret Oppenheim Prize in the field of the visual arts in Switzerland, and in 2022 the Mutina Art Prize in Modena, Italy. Shirana Shahbazi’s approach goes beyond the conventional notion of art by giving shape to individual and social multilingualism in a visual language.
The Société des Arts de Genève Prize / Visual Arts
The Société des Arts de Genève Prize / Visual Arts is a biennial prize awarded since 2009 to a Swiss artist or an artist based in Switzerland whose work has already drawn interest both in Switzerland and internationally. Now an integral part of the history of the Classe des Beaux-Arts’ activities, the Société des Arts de Genève Prize / Visual Arts recognizes the work of contemporary artists at a crucial stage of their career, providing visibility and financial support to continue their practice.
Worth 50,000 CHF, the Prize also includes a solo exhibition in the Crosnier Gallery and a publication.
The Prize was previously awarded to Francis Baudevin (2009), Christoph Büchel (2011), Gianni Motti (2013), Sylvie Fleury (2015), Mediengruppe Bitnik (2017), Renée Levi (2019), Fabrice Gygi (2021), and Bea Schlingelhoff (2023).
The Jury of the 9th Société des Arts Prize
The Exhibition Committee of the Classe des Beaux-Arts names a president who then selects the Jury from among recognized experts and professionals in the world of contemporary art. The Jury of the 9th Prize was made up of Roxane Bovet (the Jury President, curator for Rita Residenza, co-director of Éditions Clinamen, co-director of the program Master Work.Master HEAD, Geneva), Geraldine Tedder (director, Kunsthalle, Winterthur), Pierre-Henri Foulon (curator, MCBA, Lausanne), Chus Martínez (director, FHNW, Basel), Fabian Boschung, (artist, Neuchâtel), and Séverine Fromaigeat (director, Musée Barbier-Mueller, representative of the Société des Arts).
About the Société des Arts de Genève
Founded in 1776, the Société des Arts de Genève is one of the oldest cultural associations in Switzerland. The founders were given the task of advancing and promoting the development of crafts, industry, commerce, and agriculture in Geneva. Drawing on nearly 250 years of history, the Société des Arts de Genève continues to pursue its original mission, ‘to educate, promote, and encourage the development of the arts and innovation’, while approaching contemporary social issues through a unique historical multidisciplinary perspective. A venue for exchanging ideas and fostering creative competition, the Société des Arts de Genève serves as both a laboratory for artistic experimentation and a platform for amplifying the voices of young artists, curators, musicians, and researchers.