(IT/CH)

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Elena Boillat is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and Italo-Swiss researcher based in Canton Ticino.

Active in the field of performing arts and independent culture, she develops projects that combine experimental practices, collaborations, and pedagogical paths.

Her research focuses on the voice as both a medium and a physical entity capable of moving beyond conventional language. The body becomes a sounding board where breath and phonation generate sensory experiences that connect intimate, collective, and ancestral dimensions. Through a translinguistic practice, her work seeks to create a direct and empathetic connection with the audience, opening up new grounds for listening and perception.

She graduated in Disciplines of Art, Music and Entertainment at the University of Florence in 2012. Afterwards graduated as a dancer and performer at the Paolo Grassi Academy in Milan (2014). As a researcher of voice and breathing techniques, she is also a certified ATT® method teacher (Rome 2024). She has trained with many international masters and choreographers such as Maria Consagra, Luciana Melis, Dominique Dupuy, Enzo Cosimi, Ariella Vidach, Kuniaki Ida and with Atsushi Takenouchi, with whom she approached butoh dance.

She made her debut in Switzerland as choreographer and performer with the solo La forme de l’âme (2015) in collaboration with the director F. Rosso, writing a body dramaturgy on the original voice of the contemporary philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy specially recorded for the project starting from his 59 indices on the body. The performance has been guested at several international festivals, such as the Modern Body Festival in Netherlands (2016) and the Electronica Nova Music Festival in Poland (2025). Her project Mimesis (2017), an installation for one voice and one spectator, won the cantonal call for bids for cultural mediation in dance, promoted by DECS Ticino and Reso Dance network) selected like national project for the Tanz Fest (2019). She was also selected by Pro Helvetia for the Camping master class program at the Paris CND (2019).

Starting in 2023, Elena has been engaged in a personal exploration of vocal range and phonation, which led her to create the performative act P A R T I T U R A Z E R O, supported by PREMIO Schweiz ’24. In 2026, with the support of Pro Helvetia through the Global Research Trip program, Elena continues her investigation with a research project exploring vocal practices in ritual and religious contexts within Balkan culture, developed during a journey and residency in Kosovo.

She is the co-founder of the cultural policy movement Ticino is burning (Swiss Performing Arts Award (2022) and founder of R.A.R.A. - Risonanze Ascolti Ricerche Aperte (2026), a constellation of experimentation and artistic production, with attention to the liminal, ritual, corporeal and sonic dimensions.

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