Rachel Morend is a sound artist, visual artist and experimental musician from the Swiss canton of Valais. Her practice is based on the making and activation of autonomous objects and devices, often assembled from reclaimed materials. Self-taught, she develops an empirical, hands-on approach guided by experimentation and adaptation to technical constraints.
Sound runs through her work without being its sole point of reference: it emerges as a consequence of movement, materials and the systems she puts in place.
Her work reflects a pragmatic and slightly cynical relationship with the world: the works she creates function, malfunction and persist, sometimes quite pointlessly. Moving between sculpture, installation and machinery, her works explore mechanisms of repetition, friction and fatigue, revealing a form of dry poetry, often tinged with the absurd.
She has presented various works at the BexArts 26 triennial, the Fais comme chez toi festival, Plattform23 at Espace Arlaud in Lausanne, ARSENIC, a centre for performing and contemporary arts in Lausanne (2024), and Espace Grafferied in Aigle (2026). She has also undertaken six-month residencies in Berlin (2023) and Paris (2026).
Awarded by the jury at the exhibition da-là, co-organised by Visarte at the Manoir de Martigny, she presented an immersive sound installation there in the summer of 2024. She also exhibited in a duo with artist Elias Würsten in La Crémaillère, curated by Ferme-Asile at Galerie de la Grenette in Sion (2024). In 2025, she exhibited at the Musée de Bagnes, Espace Parallèle in St-Maurice and Kunsttank. Since 2022, she has also been working as a sound designer for the performing arts.
In 2021, together with Dianita and Claire Frachebourg, she founded Collective ???, an electronic music collective that has performed at venues including Le Spot in Sion, TLH in Sierre and RKC in Vevey.
Rachel Morend also composes music for the performing arts, collaborating with Cie You Should Meet My Cousins from Tchernobyl (CAMPER, 2022), performance artist Anne Rochat (IN PULSE, 2023–2024), dancer and choreographer Laure Dupont (NAÎTRE DALMATIEN, 2024), actress Joséphine Thurre (À travers tes mots, 2024), artist Christophe Burgess (Alpine Chaos, 2025), and actor and theatre director Emeric Cheseaux (Parle à mon cul, 2026). Rachel has been a member of Visarte Valais since 2024.
Rachel is an experimental machine operator, or a multidisciplinary visual artist.
And vice versa.
Residencies (past and upcoming)
- Residency at Théâtre de Valère, Sion – January 2021
- Residency at the Jesuit Church, Sion – March 2021
- State of Valais studio residency, Berlin – July–December 2023
- State of Valais studio residency, Paris – July–December 2026
Awards
- Morand Distillery Award for Sonnette, degree exhibition – June 2022
- Winner of the emerging artists competition Da-Là, Visarte Valais – July 2023
- Recipient of the 2026 Encouragement Award, awarded by the State of Valais
Education
- Lycée-Collège des Creusets – Swiss Matura (university entrance qualification) – 2018
- EDHEA – Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts – 2022