SUBSCRIBE TO THE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER: via the online form
From 11 December 2023 to 11 February 2024:
Exhibition ‘A Phantom Ride of the Sunda Plate’ by Riar Rizaldi
The Centre de la photographie Genève presents the exhibition ‘A Phantom Ride of the Sunda Plate’ by Riar Rizaldi. It brings together four projects on contemporary Indonesia and the social and environmental challenges this country currently faces.
Riar Rizaldi is a young Indonesian video artist and film-maker whose work focuses mainly on his native country, but also touches on issues that concern us all in a globalised world. These include the need for rare metals linked to new technologies and renewable energies, some of which come from Indonesia; the different conceptions of nature and technology, between indigenous traditions and Western scientific thought; the relationship between technology, work and authoritarianism; and colonial history and its effects on the present. While the themes of his work are serious and complex, the artist approaches them in a nuanced way that frequently draws on fiction, speculation and humour. Rather than simply drawing bleak conclusions about the immense challenges we face, Riar Rizaldi invites us to think about these issues in a critical and agile way, and suggests other ways of approaching them that are as unexpected as they are poetic and incisive.
THEMES AND DISCIPLINES
The visits address some of the central issues of the exhibition in an accessible and age-appropriate way. The number and complexity of the themes vary according to the age of the pupils. In all cases, the visit is based on the photographs and videos made by the artist.
Questions addressed during the visit include, depending on the age of the pupils:
- Indonesia: what are the challenges facing this Asian country today? How do these challenges affect us?
- Colonial past: how has colonisation shaped Indonesia, and what traces and effects of this history are still visible today? Would another history have been possible?
- History, investigation and archives: how does the past reach us, by whom and through what documents? How can archives, memories and oral tradition be brought together?
- Capitalism, the environment and extraction: what are the reasons for mining in Indonesia? What are the consequences for biodiversity? Can we imagine alternative ways of interacting with this environment?
- Science and beliefs: how do our visions of the world and the concepts we use to understand it influence our actions? What relations can we maintain with the living?
- Documentary and fiction: how can the use of fiction, or speculation, help us to think about concrete problems?
Depending on the age of the pupils, the subjects and themes covered during the visit include:
- Contemporary Indonesia
- Contemporary history, colonisation, geopolitics
- Geography and geology
- Environment, pollution, climate change
- Photography, art, video
Venue: Centre de la photographie Genève, 28 rue des Bains, 1205 Geneva
Dates: 11 December 2023 to 11 February 2024
Hours: Visits with the facilitator by reservation only from Monday to Friday between 9:00 and 18:00 (school groups can be welcomed outside the museum’s opening hours). Tours without a facilitator are also possible. Reservations are necessary outside the museum’s public opening hours (Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 -18:00).
Age: all school degrees from 8 years old (5P)
Duration of the visit: 45 minutes
Languages: French or English
Price: free for classes
Reservation: via the online form
Further information: by email at visites@centrephotogeneve.ch or by phone at 022 329 28 35
Preparatory visit: Admission is free for teachers wishing to prepare a visit with their class. The preparatory visit is possible during the public opening hours of the museum, from Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 18:00
FURTHER INFORMATION
The detailed description of the exhibition and the mediation offer is available (in French) in this PDF.