Marie José Burki was born in Bienne, Switzerland in 1961. She studied at Geneva University and received degrees in both French Literature and History and also received a degree from Ecole Supérieure d' Art Visuel in Geneva. Burki has had several solo exhibtions, for example at Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland, Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu, Belgium, Camden Arts Center, London as well as the Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany. Her work was included in Documenta 9 and in several group exhibitions, for example at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, at the Museum van Hendendaagse Kunst (MUHKA) in Antwerp.She has held a professorship at the Hoschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg since 2003