Véronique Goël

Born in 1951 in Rolle, Switzerland. From 1967 to 1970, trained as a fashion designer and pattern maker. Lived and worked in Rome and Brussels in Haute Couture and ready-to-wear (1970–71), then traveled in North and West Africa in 1972. Subsequently worked as an independent pattern maker (1973–75). In 1974–75, stayed in New York and then Florence, before studying painting and printmaking at the School of Fine Arts in Lausanne, followed by moving image at the film workshop of the Geneva School of Visual Arts (1976–1979). From 1983 to 1989, she lived and worked in London with the American experimental filmmaker Stephen Dwoskin. In 1987, she stayed in Berlin. She then settled permanently in Geneva in 1992.

In 1994, she conducted research at Yale and in New York for a film project on H.D. and Villa Kenwin, a film completed in 1996. In 2000, Mémento, a photographic installation, was exhibited at the Palais de l’Athénée in Geneva. In 2001, she conceived and produced a DVD shown on loop over floating fabric in the exhibition PAIX at the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva. In 2002, Fugue, a video installation, was presented at the Triennial of Contemporary Swiss Sculpture in Bex. From 2002 to 2003, she taught video in the Visual Communication department of HEAA, Geneva.

In 2004, she received a grant and artist residency in Barcelona; she produced two videos, Agbar and Poble No, as well as a photographic series on the Ciutat Vella. This opened the way for a vast body of work, with several installations of varying scale — including the creation of five Morris columns for the Sculpture Triennial in Bex in 2008 — which culminated in 2010 with Décartographie at the FMAC Media Library in Geneva. This was followed by Hidden Charms in East London, and in 2023, a feature-length film essay on Japan, presented in Marseille and Geneva.