Land Art Festival Grindelwald

Brigitta Backhaus from Gummersbach, Germany, studied art and German literature. She works with natural materials such as branches and roots, creating sculptural works that resemble nests, vessels, or take on free forms. Since 2015, she has also been creating land art installations that remain in nature and eventually return to the natural cycle.

Inge Lager is a weaving artist from Cologne. Inspired by nature, she creates delicate works ranging from intricate objects to large-scale land art sculptures that blend harmoniously into their natural surroundings.

To the website of Brigitta Bachhaus: www.brigittabackhaus-nurnatur.de
To the website of Inge Lager: www.intotheweave.de

Jean-Louis Müller

I’m a Belgian artist and craftsman working with willow and natural materials. My work is rooted in a deep connection with nature and a fascination for organic growth and structure. Each sculpture I create is woven by hand and shaped in dialogue with the landscape, guided by wind, rhythm, and intuition.

I live close to the sea on the Belgian coast, in a self-built caravan surrounded by dunes, forests, and a developing food forest project. Most of my time is spent outdoors, bending willow,surfing, exploring forms, and letting the material show me the way.

I started working with plants in my early twenties, first in a plant nursery and as a gardener, before discovering basketry and the creative possibilities of willow. I learned the beginnings of the craft from a teacher in the Netherlands, who introduced me to the essence of working with this living material. That experience opened a new path for me and continues to shape how I approach my work today.

My inspiration comes from Art Nouveau lines, tribal traditions, and the raw beauty of natural forms. I work mainly with locally grown willow from family farms in Belgium and the Netherlands. For me, weaving is a meditative process, slow, physical, and honest. It’s a way to create spaces and forms that feel alive, where craft, nature, and imagination meet.

Mark and Rebecca Ford weave drawings with found and grown natural materials in the realm of environmental art installation. In 2004 they created Two Circles Design, a working partnership making monumental woven environments for both public and private sectors. These surreal installations and ambiguous sculptures encompass a wide range of traditional skills and practices. The woven artworks directly engage with the environment as semi-permanent sculptures based on seeds and plant forms and the potential of all things. They both share a strong interest in the archaeology, geography and mystery of the natural world, drawing on ancient traditions and techniques of willow craft and woodland management.

Mark and Rebecca are regular exhibitors at Glastonbury Festival, the European Land Art Festival in Scotland, the Talamh Festival in Southern Ireland and the Llano Earth Art Festival in Texas (USA). Recent works include a 13m wicker man at Butser Ancient Farm (a working museum) a giant woven mythical creature for Creation Sur Le Champs (Canada) and the Periwinkle Shelter at RSPB Medmerry Nature Reserve (UK). Commissions include artworks for the South Downs National Park (UK), The National Trust (UK), Chichester City District Council, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), Burberry fashion brand, Arundel Wetlands (UK), Venice Biennale (Italy), The Grange Opera House (UK), Farley Farmhouse and Gallery (UK) They have collaborated with many Schools and Colleges creating woven and ephemeral art and continue to run creative workshops with community groups. “Environmental art has the power to transform the way we view the world”.

To the website: www.twocircledesign.co.uk

I began working as a professional artist in London in 1980, initially as a painter and graphic artist, but soon turned to 3D assemblage and collage. From 1985 onwards, I spent extended periods in Africa, Asia, Polynesia and Australia, where I was able to learn from local artists who taught me techniques of direct stone and wood carving as well as mosaic art. I financed my travels mainly through occasional work on ships.

Since 1993, I have been working part-time in the south of France, where I was invited to work in a sculptor’s studio and continue my work in stone and wood.

In 2005, I also began creating installations in the landscape, using natural and/or recycled materials. Since then, I have been working intensively in this field and taking part in land art events in many European countries.

My colleague in Grindelwald, Walter Fischer, worked for many years as a yacht captain and is also a highly skilled technician and woodworker who has supported me on several projects.

Francesco Lucatelli, known as Molby, was born in 1977 in Carpineto Romano, Italy. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he trained in stone ornamentation and focused on anatomical and sculptural proportions. Between 2018 and 2023, he gained experience in sub-Saharan Africa working with natural materials and clay techniques. From 2020 to 2024, he participated in various art competitions and created land art installations, including works near Lugano and for the Sirente-Velino Regional Park in Italy. In 2023, he was artist-in-residence at Ledro LandArt and created Wood Spirit and Rinascita in Trentino.

Georg Mann

Freelance work in the Vogtland region and in Halle/Saale
2020–2024 | Head of workshop at the HKD Burg Giebichenstein Halle, specialising in ceramics and art
2009–2011 | Master’s student under Prof. Bruno Raetsch
2002–2009 | Studied at the HKD Burg Giebichenstein Halle/Saale, majoring in sculpture under Prof. Bernd Göbel, graduated with a diploma in 2009
1976 | Born in Vogtland

Sarah Hillebrecht

1971 | Born in Delmenhorst, Germany
1993–1996 | Training and journeyman’s examination at the State Vocational School for Wood Sculpture in Bischofsheim an der Rhön
2000–2005 | Studies and diploma (under Prof. Wolfgang Jonas) in Integrated Design at the University of the Arts Bremen
2004 | Semester abroad at Unitec, University of Auckland, New Zealand (Prof. Allan McDonald)

Solo and group exhibitions, scholarships, symposia and artist residencies in Germany and abroad (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, Taiwan, Australia, Turkey, Switzerland, France, Spain, Netherlands)

2021 | Andreas Art Prize from the City of St. Andreasberg for ‘ergebenheit’
2022 | Sculpture performance ‘von angesicht zu angesicht’ at Schlossmediale Werdenberg, Switzerland
2023 | 1st Prize “kunst am wasser” Kriebstein, Mittel-Sächsischer Kultursommer
2024 | Grant and presentation “ohne grund” Wilke-Atelier Bremerhaven
2025 | 2-month residency grant Artbellwald, Switzerland

Valerie Schürch
Born in 1973 in Bern, she lives and works in her hometown. After an initial career as a geomatics specialist and training as an early childhood educator, she now works in the administration of a geomatics office. As a creative balance, she offers workshops in and around Bern and leads LandArt weeks in Swedish Lapland. Her seasonal nature decorations as well as her postcards are now sold to a loyal customer base.

For over ten years, she has been dedicated to LandArt. Nature—where she can draw strength, بعيد from civilization and distraction—is her most important source of inspiration. In this calm, her ephemeral works are created: spontaneous, process-oriented, and in harmony with the place.

Web: www.landundart.com
Instagram: valerie_schuerch and valerie_schuerch_naturdeko
Facebook: Valerie Schuerch

Ivo Moosberger
Born in 1974 in Zug, he is a graphic designer, artist, and adventurer. From an early age, he has been fascinated by the shapes, colors, and patterns of nature. For 30 years, he has been exploring the outdoors, creating ephemeral nature art which he documents through photography. This has led to exhibitions, books, and cards. Through his lecture series “Naturschauspiele”, he became known throughout Switzerland.

During his ten-month journey on foot across Switzerland, he wore through four pairs of hiking boots down to the insoles and lost nine kilograms of body weight. In remote landscapes, he developed into a true (survival) artist and created a wide variety of nature artworks along the way.

Web: www.naturschauspieler.ch
Instagram: ivomoosberger
Facebook: Ivo Moosberger

Yann-Marie | FR

At the boundary between visible and invisible worlds, I search for connecting lines.
As an atypical autodidact, guided by a spirit of listening and slowness, I work with plant fibers as if they were a living memory. In my approach, weaving becomes a form of active meditation—a dialogue between human, plant, and landscape. No predefined form—only the one that emerges from encounter and direct contact with the material.

I explore basketry as a way of inhabiting the world—a humble yet powerful art that connects the intimate with the collective, gesture with the earth, the ancestral with the contemporary. I work with what the land offers, and with what we too often overlook.
I seek to create forms in which humans and nature no longer appear as opposites.

Irène | CH

For the realization of the proposed work in Grindelwald, Yann-Marie is accompanied by Irène.

Marked since childhood by the mountains and rural life, I long searched for my place between the inner and outer worlds. From travels to the edges of the world to working as a mountain hut guardian in the Alps, my path has been woven from horizons and encounters.

Today, I explore the connections between nature and inner life, between walking and meditation, between breath and matter. Fibers accompany me—from dandelion stems in spring to clematis in winter. Thus, I move through the year in dialogue with their flexibility and resistance, transforming materials into everyday objects. Containers, the first companions of humanity, for gathering, preserving, transporting… and sharing. I move forward with the rhythm of the seasons, guided by the desire to inhabit the world with simplicity, presence, and wonder.

To the webseite of Yann-Marie: www.vannerie-yann-marie.fr
To the webseite of Irène: www.chemins-sauvages.ch

Yvonne Christen Vágner (*1959, Switzerland) studied sculpture at the School of Design in Lucerne and at Camberwell Art School in London. She works in the fields of installation, sculpture, object art, video, and land art. She has received various artist residencies and grants, including the Binz 39 Foundation studio scholarship in Zurich and the Art-Est scholarship in Prague. In 1996, she was awarded a cultural promotion grant by the Canton of Zug. She has realised numerous projects both in Switzerland and abroad. She lives and works in Zurich. At the Land Art Festival Grindelwald, she is actively supported by her partner, Jan Vágner.

Onongua Enkhtur (*1994), born in Mongolia, has focused on land art and textile art since 2019. Her nomadic lifestyle and deep connection to Mongolian nature and culture strongly influence her work. Using techniques such as knitting, weaving, and mixed media, she addresses the simplicity and the authencity of nomadic philosophy.

Ulziibat Enkhtur is a Mongolian performance artist based in Switzerland. Her work spans dance, singing, visual art, and participatory performances. She is a member of the Neg-Uudel group founded by Onongua and initiated the “Essence Performance Art Project,” which brings intercultural art to remote locations.

Heidi Bernet (born 1986, CH) is a trained florist from Grindelwald who spent ten years pursuing her passion for flowers in her own shop. Her love of nature led her to land art, and today, her family is at the center of her life.

Erwin Bernhard (born 1963, CH) is a nurseryman and has been transforming gardens into green oases with his small team for over 30 years. His farm, including a forested area, has become a haven for birds and amphibians thanks to his dedication to flora and fauna.

Together, they have successfully participated in land art festivals in Switzerland and abroad, including in Grindelwald and Montreal.