Barbara Polla

Barbara Polla (born March 7, 1950) is a Swiss medical doctor, gallery owner, art curator and writer.

Biography

Barbara Polla is the daughter of the painter AMI (Anne-Marie Imhoof) and philhellenist (Rodolphe Imhoof). She grew up in Geneva, and spent a year in Greece at the age of 17. This year abroad was her first approach with dictatorship and prison. Mother of four daughters (Ada Salomé, Cyrille Zoé, Rachel Isadora and Roxane Selana) but against marriage, she married the father of her daughters so they all have the same name. She divorced in 2013.

Barbara Polla studied in Geneva where she obtained a degree with a specialization in inner medicine, pneumology and immunoallergology. She then conducted research at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. In 1989, she took the helm of the unit of study of allergies at the Cantonal Hospital in Geneva. From 1993 to 2000, she worked as research director of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, focusing on stress proteins (HSP) and oxygen free radicals. She is the author and co-author of hundreds of articles dedicated to research and published in various reviews such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and The American Journal of Physiology. In 1991, Barbara Polla got deeply involved in politics: first as member of the Geneva City Council, then as canton depute of Geneva from 1993 to 1999 and finally as member of the National Parliament from 1999 to 2003. She left the Liberal Party of Geneva in 2007. She was the President of (Institute of medical aesthetics created by Luigi Polla) until 2014 and is the co-founder of the Alchimie Forever (skin care) range care, which is now managed by her daughter Ada Polla (based in Washington DC).

Since 1991, she has been developing her activity of gallery owner in Geneva. International program dedicated to contemporary artists, interest in every field that art explores and in every artistic media, multiple collaborations with art critics and curators, many publications, are some of the characteristics of Analix Forever. Barbara Polla has been curating regular exhibitions in Paris and elsewhere since 2011. In 2008, Barbara Polla initiated a long term collaboration with Paul Ardenne (exhibitions, conferences, books). She was his associate curator for the exhibition "Motopoetics" (MAC Lyon, 2014) and for "Human Economy" presented at HEC Paris (2014, 2015). In 2015, Barbara Polla and Paul Ardenne are the co-curators of a two-part exhibition of the Australian Shaun Gladwell across two sites in Sydney: UNSW Galleries and SCAF (Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation).

She teaches on the links between art and fashion at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) in Paris and at the HEAD (Haute Ecole d'art et de Design) in Geneva. She organizes monthly seminars in Geneva on the theme of creativity and is also a creative and critical writing professor at the HEAD. Barbara Polla is a writer and a columnist for newspapers such as Les Quotidiennes (La Tribune de Genève, 24 heures), Agefi, (Switzerland), Citizen K, Nuke, Blast, Bariqaldana (Kuwait), CRASH, DROME, ART And, Roots & Routes, and Kunst Magazine. She cofounded and edited the magazine Londerzeel and has created, in 2013, with the support of HEAD Geneva, the first issue of Critical Fashion Review. She also founded the Swiss Organization for emotional architecture and is the originator of the first international conference about emotional Architecture that took place in January 2011 in Geneva. Barbara Polla commits herself to freedom at various levels: as national counsellor, she fought for freedom of research, for the right to abort and to the pre-implantation diagnosis. The final voting about this subject occurred in Switzerland on the June 14, 2015.

Politics

In 1991 Polla got involved in politics, first as member of the Geneva City Council, and then as canton of Geneva deputee from 1993 to 1999 and member of the national parliament from 1999 to 2003. During her tenure as politicians she stood up for the freedom of research, preimplantatory diagnosis and the legalisation of abortion. She left the Liberal Party of Geneva in 2007.

Art and prison

As a gallery owner, she is involved in the freedom of art. She has been co-curator of many exhibitions on the theme "Art & Prison". The first one, entitled Public Enemy was organized at Magda Danysz Gallery in 2013. Another exhibition on the same theme was born a year after. It was the result of a strong collaboration between Hélène Lallier, the director of the contemporary art centre le Château des Adhémar in Montélimar, and Barbara Polla. This major group show, La Belle Echappée, will soon become a travelling exhibition. In March 2015, La Belle Echappée, is shown at ISBA (Beaux Arts Institute of Besançon) particularly thanks to its director, Laurent Deveze, and his deep interest in the issues linked to imprisonment and alienation. The same evolving show will soon travel to Nanterre (city next to Paris) in a contemporary art exhibition area called the Terrasse, in collaboration with Sandrine Moreau.

Art video

Barbara Polla and Paul Ardenne are also organizing bimonthly conferences dedicated to video art. This event called VIDEO FOREVER and created in 2011 takes place in different sites: Show Room Kris Van Assche, Magda Danysz et Vanessa Quang Galleries, Palais de Tokyo, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Frank Perrin studio, au National Finish Theatre of Helsinki and UNSW Galleries in Sydney.

Bibliography

Publications

• Asthme et allergie, Ed. Médecine et Hygiène, Geneva, 1993
• Incertaine identité, with Olivier Zahm, Luigi L. Polla, Ed. Georg, 1994
• Stress-inducible cellular responses, with Feige U. Morimoto RI. Yahara I., Ed. BirkhäuserVerlag (Basel, Boston, Berlin), 1996
• L'inflammation, avec Russo-Marie F. Pelletier A., Médecine/Sciences, Ed. John Libbey, 1998
• Étreinte, Ed. de l'Aire, 2003
• La Nécessité libérale 2-88108-644-6, Ed. de l'Aire, 2003
• Vocation créateurs, with Pascal Perez, 2004
• Les hommes, ce qui les rend beaux, Ed. Favre, 2005
• Handicap entre différence et ressemblance, Ed. Favre, 2007
• Andrea Mastrovito | Tigres de papier, with Andrea Bruciati, Paolo Colombo, Joseph del Pesco, Paul Ardenne, Ed. monografik, 2008
• Working Men, le travail dans l'art contemporain, with Paul Ardenne, Ed. Que, 2008
• A toi bien sûr, Ed. l'Âge d'Homme, 2008
• Kris Van Assche, Amor o muerte, Ed. L'Âge d'Homme, 2009
• Victoire, Ed. l'Âge d'Homme, 2009
• Peintures. Please pay attention please, with Paul Ardenne, Ed. La Muette, 2010
• Architecture Émotionnelle, Matière à penser, Collectif sous la direction de Paul Ardenne et Barbara Polla, Ed. La Muette, 2011
• Jacques Coulais Pictor Maximus, avec Paul Ardenne, Ed. Take5, 2011
• Tout à fait femme, Odile Jacob, 2012
• Noir Clair dans tout l'univers, Collectif sous la direction de Barbara Polla, Ed. La Muette, 2012
• IN IT, Ali Kazma - Paul Ardenne, Barbara Polla, Managing editor, 2012
• L'Ennemi public, Collectif under the supervision of Barbara Polla, Paul Ardenne & Magda Danysz, Ed. La Muette, 2013
• Mat Collishaw ou l'horreur délicieuse, Under the supervision of Barbara Polla, Ed. La Muette, 2013
• Tout à fait homme, Odile Jacob, 2014
• Troisième Vie, Eclectica, 2015

Catalogues

• Ghosting, mounir fatmi, Studio Fatmi Publishing, Oct. 2011. Texts by Thierry Raspail, Lillian Davies, Michèle Cohen Hadria, Thomas Boutoux, Barbara Polla
• Ali Kazma, C24 Gallery, 2012 ISBN 978-0-615-71553-7
• The Kissing Precise, Ed. La Muette, 2013. Texts by Barbara Polla, Régis Durand & mounir fatmi.
• The Lacrima Chair, Shaun Gladwell, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, 2015 ISBN 978-0-9874909-3-3
• Echo of the Unknown, Janet Biggs, Blaffer Art Museum, 2015. Texts by Janet Phelps, Barbara Polla & Jean-Philippe Rossignol
• Robert Montgomery, Ed Distanz, 2015. ISBN 978-3-95476-077-0
• Body Membory, Topographie de l'Art, 2015 ISBN 978-2-36669-018-7

Préfaces

• Quelle muse m'a piqué ce matin ? J'aurais dû faire marche arrière, Helena Zanelli, W Ed. 2014: Webstory, L'Histoire des Autres, by Barbara Polla
• Cent grammes d'Engramme, L'Âge d'Homme, 2010 : Cent, by Barbara Polla

External links

• Official Barbara Polla's Blog
• Analix Forever Blog