Give Us Back the Beauty.
— Bernard Garo
Bernard Garo (b. 1964, Geneva) is a Swiss painter, photographer, and filmmaker whose work bridges art, science, and environmental reflection. A graduate of the École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) with honours in painting, photography, and engraving, Garo has developed over three decades a multidisciplinary practice that merges material experimentation with ecological awareness.
His paintings combine natural pigments, volcanic sands, sediments, bitumen, and glacier water on canvas or paper, evoking geological time and transformation. Through photography and film, he extends these explorations to the documentation of glaciers and the evolving landscapes of the Anthropocene — what he calls “acts of memory.”
Garo has exhibited widely across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. His museum exhibitions include the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), the Musée Espace Arlaud (Lausanne), and the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève, where his 2023–24 art-and-science residency led to the publication of Rendez-nous la beauté, a major monograph exploring his long-term engagement with environmental change.
Recipient of the Artivist Lion de Venise (2022) and the Jury Prize at the International Glacier Film Festival (2025), Garo has also shown work at Art Basel, NordArt (Germany), and the Beijing International Art Biennale. His films, created with Marc Décosterd under the duo Black Shroud, have received numerous international awards, including for Torrential Lava (2025), screened at the International Glacier Film Festival (Geneva) and the Earth Film Festival (Brazil).
Public art commissions include the Bessières Metro Station (Lausanne, 2006) and large-scale outdoor installations at the Paléo Festival (Nyon). In 2025, Garo’s photographs are featured in outdoor exhibitions in Bernex and at the Chamonix Photo Festival, affirming his ongoing global engagement with environmental art and cinema.
Garo lives and works between Nyon and Geneva, Switzerland.