Andreas Gysin

Biography

Andreas Gysin and Sidi Vanetti are a Swiss artist duo, both born in 1975, who work collaboratively under the name Gysin-Vanetti from their studio in Lugano, Switzerland. Their practice centers on the visual language of multipurpose displays, the segmented, dot-matrix, and pixel-based screens found in everyday devices such as calculators, digital clocks, and early computer monitors, which they treat as a rich and underexplored typographic and geometric system. Rather than using these display technologies simply as output devices, Gysin and Vanetti write custom software and build physical installations that reveal and play with the underlying grid logic of the hardware itself, producing images and patterns that feel both nostalgic and strikingly contemporary. Andreas Gysin, trained as a graphic designer, first became interested in creating images beyond conventional pixels during his design education in the late 1990s, and he has individually built a body of work rooted in ASCII art, generative design, and kinetic installation alongside his ongoing collaboration with Vanetti. Together, the duo's projects range from generative software pieces and limited edition prints to public interventions and kinetic sculptures that translate their display-based visual research into physical space. Their work has been shown and collected by institutions and platforms including HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Kunste) in Basel and the Arab Bank Switzerland collection, alongside numerous digital art platforms and galleries active in the NFT space. Series such as Link, Towers, and Smooth Steps demonstrate their ongoing exploration of grids, segments, and modular repetition, often rendered with a playful, almost toy-like visual character. Across their collaborative and individual output, Gysin-Vanetti's work asks viewers to look closely at the humble technical constraints of everyday screens and find in them an open field for formal invention.