🎨 Biography of the Artist PIX – Fabien Piccand (1971–2009)

Street Art • Design • Artoys – Geneva, Switzerland

🎨 Fabien Piccand, known by his artist name PIX, was born in Paris in 1971 and moved to Geneva in 1972. A key figure of the Swiss urban art scene, he influenced a whole generation through his visionary approach to street art, design, and the Artoys movement.

🖌️ During his teenage years, PIX explored the stencil (pochoir) technique on the streets of Geneva and New York (1986–1991). He later studied interior architecture at the Geneva School of Applied Arts, graduating in 1996.

🏭 His final thesis focused on the Artamis industrial site, which he helped transform into a dynamic artistic community. Under his guidance, it became home to artist studios, cafés, concerts, and urban art exhibitions, evolving into a true open-air graffiti gallery.

🎧 In parallel, PIX became active in the squat movement, organizing events at Café Les Négociants and experimenting with VJing and video art. His work accompanied DJs and electronic musicians at events such as La Bâtie-Festival and the Mapping Festival, where he also worked as a scenographer in 2007.

🖼️ Between 1999 and 2001, PIX founded and directed Galerie Carré Rouge on Rue des Bains — an independent, avant-garde space that paved the way for many of today’s contemporary art venues in Geneva. He collaborated with the Centre d’Art Contemporain and Art Public Genève, while also working on several architectural projects for the City of Geneva, including La Nuit de la Science.

🎶 A passionate architect, designer, and music lover, PIX created the iconic club NORMA in 2004. In 2007, he revisited his playful and conceptual side with the creation of the limited edition “ZEE – Art is Medicine” — one of Switzerland’s first designer toy collections, co-produced with CharacterStation.

💊 Each ZEE figurine represented a symbolic virtue — creativity, balance, love, or rebellion — presented as a therapeutic capsule, blending humor, design, and reflection on art’s healing power.

💬 “Art can truly be a remedy.”

🌍 A free spirit and multidisciplinary artist — curator, scenographer, and architect — PIX left a lasting mark on the Swiss creative scene. He passed away in Costa Rica in 2009, while working on a new artistic project. His legacy continues to inspire artists, collectors, and dreamers around the world.