Pipilotti Rist is a Swiss contemporary video artist. Best known for her vividly colorful work exploring the female body—namely her own—Rist’s work engages in lighthearted play, frequently combining a camera-specific aesthetic and technique with a message of social critique or commentary. “When I close my eyes, my imagination roams free,” she has explained. “In the same way I want to create spaces for video art that rethink the very nature of the medium itself. I want to discover new ways of configuring the world, both the world outside and the world within.” Born Elisabeth Charlotte on June 21, 1962 in Grabs, Switzerland, the artist studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, before studying video at the Schule für Gestaltung in Switzerland. Gaining acclaim for her work in the 1997 Venice Biennial, during which she received the Premio 2000 Prize, Rist continued her upward trajectory of international recognition, teaching at the University of California Los Angeles with Paul McCarthy in 2002–2003, and being awarded the Joan Miró Prize in 2009. She currently lives and works between Zurich and the mountains of Switzerland.