Schools – Centre Photographie Genève

Since autumn 2022, the Centre de la photographie Genève (CPG) has been offering a new cultural mediation programme for school audiences from grade 5P (8 years old). The 45-minute school visits, conceived and led by a facilitator, are available by reservation. This offer is free for school classes.

Each visit is interdisciplinary and touches on art and photography as well as themes related to history, geography, technology or broad social issues such as exile, identity or the imaginary.

From 14 June to 27 August 2023:
Exhibition Matter by Aleix Plademunt

Developed over almost a decade, Matter is the most ambitious work to date by Catalan artist Aleix Plademunt. It takes as its starting point the word matter, which stems from mater, the Latin word for mother. Matter refers to any substance with a physical existence.

For this project, Aleix Plademunt collaborated with scientific teams from more than 15 countries, including Switzerland, engaged in the study of matter in a multitude of forms. At the junction of the living and the inert, they investigate the particles that make up the fabric of the universe, geologic eons and eras, vanished civilizations and their relics, human anatomy and its robotic or artistic reproductions, among many other fields. Matter is constant, inert and indifferent, and yet it makes life possible. Humans, in response, shape it and study it relentlessly, but we have yet to succeed in unravelling the fundamental mysteries of life. By combining photographs from multiple contexts across the world, the artist offers us a singular and complex tale about the human condition, through the lens of history, biology, physics and geography. He bears witness to human ingenuity, curiosity and creativity, as well as to its violence and its desire for power and control. His photographs weave together the documentary and the intimate, forming an equally personal and political narrative, beautiful 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:

How can we define matter? What are the conditions necessary for life to exist?
Where do we come from and how far can humans ‘augment’ themselves?
How is matter preserved? How have thousand-year-old monuments survived the passage of time?What were the meanings and uses of monuments in ancient civilizations?
Energy and matter: what is electromagnetic radiation; how does the eye perceive light rays; what is light made of?
Matter in all its states: fire, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, gas explosions, or the perception of the infinitely small.
Biology: how can a tree be over 9000 years old?
The exploitation of resources and its ecological, social and geopolitical consequences.
The history of colonisation: from the conquest of the Roman Empire to the Belgian and Spanish colonies.
How the fascination for gold and other precious materials led to the plundering of resources and the death of thousands of people.
From metal recycling to medicine and agriculture, how do humans transform matter and why?

Depending on the age of the pupils, the subjects and themes covered during the visit include:

Biology, research, medicine, physics
Contemporary history, colonisation, geopolitics
Geology, exploitation of resources, pollution
Photography, art

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Venue: Centre de la photographie Genève, 28 rue des Bains, 1205 Geneva

Dates: 14 June to 27 August 2023

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.

From 28 April to 28 May 2023:
Human rights photography prize of the Foundation Act On Your Future

Technological innovations have precipitated the advent of the digital age, where intelligent and connected devices are an integral part of the private and public sphere. A tool for information, communication and empowerment, the Internet and innovative digital technologies are also powerful tools of control and alienation. Personal information is recorded and transformed into data that can then be stored and monetised.

The relationship of our ultra-connected societies with new technologies is ambivalent. While some people are fascinated by the development of artificial intelligence, others fear its exponential presence. Sometimes sacred, sometimes decried, technological advances have undeniably changed our relationship with the world and raise important issues about the protection of fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and privacy, in the real or virtual world. However innovative these technologies may be, they are still tools. So how can we ensure that they are used responsibly and in a way that benefits living beings? In the age of the augmented human and the ultra-connected, our relationship with digital and technological tools must be constantly rethought.