Bernard Tullen

Bernard Tullen (b. 1971, Switzerland) is a Swiss artist whose practice spans painting, photography, and installation. He lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland.

Working at the intersection of archival research, history, and image culture, Tullen investigates the ways collective memory is constructed, transmitted, and forgotten. Drawing from photographs found in newspapers, historical archives, and mass media, he meticulously reproduces images in oil or gouache before subjecting them to processes of washing and erasure. Through this transformation, familiar documentary images acquire a ghostly, unstable presence, suspended between appearance and disappearance.

His work explores the fragile status of the photographic image as both historical document and cultural artifact. Recurring themes include surveillance, political violence, ideology, scientific racism, and the mechanisms through which images shape historical narratives. Rather than offering definitive accounts, Tullen constructs open-ended visual investigations in which repetition, fragmentation, and absence invite viewers to reconsider the reliability of memory and the persistence of history.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Centre de la photographie Genève, and is recognized for its nuanced dialogue between painting and photography, where historical images are transformed into contemplative reflections on time, remembrance, and the politics of representation.