Andréas SCHWEIZER

Born in 1961, Andréas Schweizer is a graduate of the Fine Arts Institute of Geneva (Ecole supérieure des beaux-arts de Genève [HEAD]). His specialisation in engraving, photography and print techniques, have enabled him to contribute substantially to the preservation of Geneva’s longstanding heritage in the graphic-arts, whilst raising awareness of this valuable historical legacy. Within the framework of the Association for Industrial Heritage (API), based in Geneva, Switzerland – one of continental Europe’s earliest establishments of its kind – he is committed to perpetuating this legacy for future generations, linking Gutenberg’s landmark discoveries with contemporary and avant-garde information and communication technologies and, in this process, developing a means for social and cultural integration. As director of the “Maison du Patrimoine” (literally, the House of Heritage), Schweizer is regularly called upon as an expert in the conservation of industrial heritage by government authorities and diverse organisations involved in the field. In 1995, he undertook a two-month mission to India to study the last operational Monotype type-casters, in order to help develop a fully-integrated computer-driven type-casting system. Chairman of the first European Monotype University held in Geneva in 2004, Schweizer is the founder of www.letterpress.ch, an internet portal devoted to Monotype type-casting. He his also officially recognized as an expert by the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (the SATW’s ICT Commission). Alongside his professional activities, Schweizer cultivates perennial plants for dyeing, exploring traditional and innovative cloth-printing techniques in his private garden.