I wanted to create a residency, which reflected the power of the mountains and the energy of city-based artists, to form an international dialogue as a pioneering platform for public art in the Alps.
Madeleine Paternot, Co-Founder and Artist
The Verbier 3-D Foundation is a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to promoting contemporary art, environmentalism and education through its Artist Residency and Sculpture Park. 

Founded in 2010 by New York-based artist Madeleine Paternot and Verbier-based artist Kiki Thompson, the pioneering organization creates an experimental and educational Artist Residency and Sculpture Park at an altitude of 2,300 meters, inspired by the stunning Alpine landscape of Verbier, Switzerland.

Our mission is to support emerging and established talent by pushing artists out of their comfort zones, fostering development that might not be possible in the studio space. 
The research-led residency is co-curated by Alexa Jeanne Kusber and Paul Goodwin with a perspective of creating a cross-disciplinary residency for artists to investigate modern environmental issues in creative dialogue with local scholars, scientists and the public to chronicle the impact of the surrounding natural environment.

The Sculpture Park is an evolving display of multimedia works developed during the residencies from artists such as Olaf Breuning, James Capper, Onyedika Chuke, Gregory Coates, Tarik Hayward, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Zak Ové, Will Ryman, and Josette Taramarcaz, among many others.

Find out more about our visiting and collaborating artists, view upcoming and past exhibitions, and engage in our evolving education programmes.

What we do

Our aim is to generate an aesthetic sensibility in the arts and for artists to develop innovative series of works and creative propositions in situ that can provide a prism to see the fragility, but also the beauty, of our environment in a new light.

Sculpture park

The Sculpture Park, located at an altitude of 2,300 meters in the Swiss Alps, is a space where visitors can experience monumental sculpture and site-specific commissions.
Discover the Art

Residency

The Residency pushes artists out of their comfort zones to develop new work focused on current environmental discourse.
Browse our Residencies

Education programme

Our education programme offers a diverse program to increase the understanding of contemporary art practices, our changing environment and fosters a dialogue between artists and communities.
Learn more
The power of art is its ability to articulate human emotions and values such as beauty and truth. On the mountain, faced with such sublime vistas, the visitor can experience these works of art… completely removed from the gallery or museum, directly confronting the truth of nature. This is the true meaning of a museum without walls.
Paul Goodwin, Verbier 3-D Curator

Verbier 3–D Sculpture Park, or the museum without walls

Plan your visit
In 2011, Verbier’s first Sculpture Park was created by the 3-D Foundation on the path between the ski lifts of La Chaux and Ruinettes, at an altitude of 2300 metres.

The Sculpture Park features new work by emerging and leading artists that welcomes engagement to experimental ideas around art and environmentalism.

Each year, new thought-provoking work in the field of “Climate Research Art” is developed during the residency and exhibited in the Verbier 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park for a period of at least 2 years.

Visitors of all ages have the opportunity to access artists’ research and further learn about the crossroads between climate, knowledge and art in the alpine environment the work was inspired from.

Recognising the potential impact of severe environmental conditions – snow, wind, water, sun – the works featured in the Park are exhibited on long-term rotation or are time-based works.

Free Guided Tours of the sculpture park are available throughout the year.

Art Advisory

Jean-Edouard van Praet
Tappan Heher
Audrey Klein
Hubert Bonnet
Jean-Paul Fellay
Arne Zimmermann
Kathrin Eirich

 

Honorary Trustees

Marie-Hélène de Torrenté

 

 

Become a Member

Your Verbier 3-D Foundation membership provides you with exclusive access to the arts and also provides critical support for our future!
Membership options