b. 1987
b. 1987
Photo: Nora Heinisch
Julian Charrière (b. 1987, lives and works in Berlin) is a Swiss-French artist whose work explores the cultural and environmental histories embedded in natural landscapes. Spanning film, sculpture, photography, and installation, his practice often involves fieldwork in ecologically and symbolically charged sites — glaciers, volcanoes, nuclear test zones, and deep-sea ecosystems—examining how human activity inscribes itself into the planet’s surfaces, atmospheres, and futures.
Fusing scientific observation with poetic speculation, Charrière creates immersive works where wonder and unease coexist, probing the colonial and extractivist legacies embedded in exploration, landscape representation, and technologies of seeing. Born in Morges, Switzerland in 1987, he graduated from the Berlin University of Arts (UdK) and participated in Olafur Eliasson’s Institut für Raumexperimente (Institute for Spatial Experiments). Charrière has exhibited his work internationally—both individually and as part of the Berlin-based collective Das Numen—at institutions including Museum Tinguely; Palais de Tokyo; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo); MASI Lugano; the Parasol Unit Foundation for Art, London; the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne; the Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Kunsthalle Wien; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna; the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; the Reykjavik Art Museum; the K11 Foundation, Shanghai; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, among others. His work has also been featured in major biennials, including the Kochi-Muziris Biennale; the 12th Biennale de Lyon; the 13th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice; the 57th Venice Biennale; the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art; and the 14th Bienal de Artes Mediales de Santiago. Charrière was awarded the Kiefer Hablitzel / Swiss Art Award in 2013 and 2015, received the GASAG Art Prize in 2018, and was the recipient of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Environment and Art Prize at MOCA Los Angeles in 2024.
Buried Sunshines Burn | HZK.B4P, 2023
heliograph on high-polished stainless steel plate, stainless steel frame, museum glass (ArtGlass 70)
image: 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches (100 x 80 cm)
framed: 40 15/16 x 33 1/16 x 1 9/16 inches (104 x 84 x 4 cm)
unique
(JCh-411)
Julian Charrière
Buried Sunshines Burn | 1Z.CX0, 2023
heliograph on high-polished stainless steel plate, stainless steel frame, museum glass (ArtGlass 70)
image: 86 9/16 x 57 inches (219.8 x 144.8 cm)
framed: 88 9/16 x 59 1/16 x 2 inches (225 x 150 x 5 cm)
unique
(JCh-382)
Controlled Burn | Cooling Tower B.1, 2023
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, mounted on aluminum Dibond, framed (aluminum), ArtGlass anti-reflective glass
image/paper: 86 5/8 x 59 1/16 inches (220 x 150 cm)
framed: 87 3/4 x 60 3/16 x 1 9/16 inches (222.8 x 152.8 x 4 cm)
edition of 5 with 2 APs (#1/5)
the work is accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
JCh-374.1
Controlled Burn | Open-Pit Mine G.4, 2023
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, mounted on aluminum Dibond, framed (aluminum), ArtGlass anti-reflective glass
image/paper: 86 5/8 x 59 1/16 inches (220 x 150 cm)
framed: 87 3/4 x 60 3/16 x 1 9/16 inches (222.8 x 152.8 x 4 cm)
edition of 5 with 2 APs (#3/5)
the work is accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
JCh-375.3
Controlled Burn, 2022
the work is accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
4K film, 16:9 aspect ratio, 3D ambisonic soundscape, continuous video loop, 32 minutes
edition of 5 with 2 APs (#5/5)
(JCh-17.5)
Julian Charrière
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2021
glacial erratic rock, drill cores, aluminum, brass, copper, stainless steel
37 5/8 x 196 1/16 x 31 1/8 inches (95.5 x 498 x 79 cm)
unique
(JCh-205)
Julian Charrière
Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020
obsidian
38 3/16 x 43 5/16 x 33 7/16 inches (97 x 110 x 85 cm)
(JCh-298)
And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019
The work is accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
4k color film, aspect ratio 16:9, stereo sound, continuous loop
Edition of 5 with 2 APs
(JCh-15)
Towards No Earthly Pole - Sovetskaya, 2019
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl, mounted on aluminum dibond, framed (alder), Mirogard anti-reflective glass
paper: 31 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches (80 x 100 cm)
framed: 32 3/16 x 40 1/16 x 1 5/8 inches (81.8 x 101.8 x 4.2 cm)
Edition of 5 with 1AP
(JCh-327)
An Invitation to Disappear - Sanggau, 2018
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, mounted on aluminum dibond, framed, Mirogard anti-reflective glass
paper: 59 1/16 x 73 13/16 inches (150 x 187.5 cm)
framed: 60 9/16 x 75 5/16 x 2 inches (153.8 x 191.3 x 5 cm)
edition of 3 with 1 AP
the work is accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
JCh-287
Metamorphism XXXXI, 2016
artificial lava and molten computer waste
65 15/16 x 11 13/16 x 11 13/16 inches (170 x 30 x 30 cm)
JCh-69
Nutmeg - First Light, 2016
large format color photograph, double-exposed through radioactive material, archival pigment print on Hahnemüle Photo Rag, mounted on aluminum Dibond, Red Palmira veneered frame, Mirogard anti-reflective glass
paper: 59 1/8 x 73 7/8 inches (150.2 x 187.7 cm)
framed: 60 1/2 x 75 5/16 x 1 5/8 inches (153.8 x 191.3 x 4.2 cm)
unique
JCh-237
The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories I, 2013
archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
various dimensions
Centre Pompidou, Interview with Julian Charrière for his nomination for the 2021 Prix Marcel Duchamp
Julian Charrière | Towards No Earthly Pole | Sean Kelly, New York | 2020
Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, Julian
Charrière in conversation with Ziba Ardalan, January 21, 2016
Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Artist Interview: Julian Charriere | Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014, September 2, 2014
