Barbara Polla

Barbara Polla, born March 7, 1950, is a Swiss medical doctor, gallery owner,^[1] writer.^[2]

Biography

After studying medicine in Geneva Barbara Polla obtains her degree with a specialization in inner medicine, pneumology and immunoallergology.^[3] She then conducted research at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston.^[3]

She is back in Switzerland in 1989 and takes the helm of the unit of study of allergies at the Cantonal Hospital.^[3] She also steers the laboratory of respiratory physiology of the Cochin Faculty of Medicine, Paris V University from 1993 till 2000 as research director of the INSERM.^[3] Her main focuses are the stress proteins (HSP) and oxygen free radicals.^[3] She wrote and co-wrote about a hundred of original research articles published in reviews such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, The Americal Journal of Physiology, as well as numerous chapters of review specialized in stress proteins, oxidants and antioxidants.^[3]

Getting involved in the Swiss national politics in 1991, she is at first member of the Geneva city council until 1993, then canton of Geneva deputee from 1993 to 1999^[4] and eventually member of the national parliament from 1999 to 2003.^[5] She leaves the Geneva liberal Party in 2007.

Barbara Polla is an entrepreneur in the field of beauty : Forever Laser Institute^[6](institute of medical aesthetics) and Alchimie Forever (skin care products).^[3]

Since 1991 she also pursues gallery owner's activity in Geneva. Analix Forever Gallery is notably characterized by an international programming of contemporary artists, its publications on art, interest for any domain of art and any medium, multiple collaborations with international art critics and curators. Since 2011, Barbara Polla organizes regularly shows and events in Paris, in collaboration with diverse galleries and structures.^[7]

She regularly gives lectures on connections between art and fashion at the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) in Paris and at the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD).

Barbara Polla is a writer and a columnist for numerous newspapers among which Les Quotidiennes,^[8] Agefi, La Tribune de Genève and 24 heures (Switzerland),^[3] Citizen K,^[9] Nuke^[9] and Blast (Paris)^[9] or Bariqaldana (Kuwait), Drome, Art And, Roots & Routes, Kunst Magazine.^[9]

Barbara Polla has been cofounder and chief editor of the magazine Londerzeel and has created, in 2013, with the students and the support of HEAD Geneva, the number zero of the Critical Fashion Review.^[10]

She created the Swiss Association for Emotional Architecture and organized the First International Conference on Emotional Architecture in Geneva in 2011.

Barbara Polla commits herself for freedom : as an MP she stood up for the freedom of research, for abortion and preimplantatory diagnosis. As a galerist, she militates for the freedom of art. She co-curated a show on prison, entitled The Public Ennemy, and coordinated the publication of a book with the same title. She also commits to an increase of freedom for women, at all levels, including within the classical family structure.

Bibliography

• Mat Collishaw ou l'horreur délicieuse, Collectif sous la direction de Barbara Polla, Ed. La Muette, 2013
• L'Ennemi public, Collectif sous la direction de Barbara Polla, Paul Ardenne et Magda Danysz, Ed. La Muette, 2013
• Noir Clair dans tout l'univers, Collectif sous la direction de Barbara Polla, Ed. La Muette, 2012
• Tout à fait femme, Odile Jacob, 2012
• Jacques Coulais Pictor Maximus, avec Paul Ardenne, Ed. Take5, 2011
• Architecture Emotionnelle, Matière à penser, Collectif sous la direction de Paul Ardenne et Barbara Polla, Ed. La Muette, 2011
• Peintures. Please pay attention please, avec Paul Ardenne, Ed. La Muette, 2010
• Victoire, ed. l'Age d'Homme, 2009
• Kris Van Assche, Amor o muerte, ed. l'Age d'Homme, May 2009
• A toi bien sûr, ed. l'Age d'Homme, November 2008
• Working Men, le travail dans l'art contemporain, with Paul Ardenne, Ed. Que, 2008
• Andrea Mastrovito | Tigres de papier, with Andrea Bruciati, Paolo Colombo, Joseph del Pesco, Paul Ardenne, Ed. monografik, 2008.
• Handicap entre différence et ressemblance, Favre, 2007
• Les hommes, ce qui les rend beaux, Favre, 2005
• Vocation Créateurs, with Pascal Perez, 2004, book about company's creation
• La nécessité libérale, 117 pages, ISBN 2-88108-644-6 Ed. de l'Aire, 2003
• Étreinte, Ed. de l'Aire, 2003, 85 p.
• L'inflammation, with Russo-Marie F. Pelletier A., Médecine/Sciences, John Libbey, 1998.
• Stress-inducible cellular responses, with Feige U. Morimoto RI. Yahara I., BirkhäuserVerlag (Basel, Boston, Berlin), 1996.
• Incertaine identité, with Olivier Zahm, Luigi L. Polla, Ed. Georg, 1994
• Asthme et allergie, Ed. Médecine et Hygiène, Geneva, 1993

External links

• Official Barbara Polla's Blog

Notes