In 2016, the City of Geneva launched a photographic survey. This important commission is awarded each year to a photographer active in the canton of Geneva, with a theme chosen for a period of three years. This approach allows for the creation of a photographic heritage that is equally of artistic and historical relevance. The exhibition «Mobilités» showcases three photographic surveys, carried out by artists Zoé Aubry, Gabriela Löffel and Laurence Rasti between 2019 and 2021.

These three photographic bodies of work, developed independently of one another, focus respectively on the control of migratory flows and the movement of people (Gabriela Löffel and Laurence Rasti), as well as elective surgical transformations of the body (Zoé Aubry). Together, they explore the ramifications of mobility in its most direct impacts on bodies, those that circulate clandestinely and are sometimes concealed, as well as those whose flesh is altered and whose image travels via screens. The three artists thus take a lucid, committed and critical look at the implications of migration policies, as well as those of social injunctions on the appearance of bodies.

All three projects involve research and investigation into complex phenomena that are often presented in the media in a reductive and divisive manner. The search for sources and documents, as well as individual, collective or institutional partners, was an integral part of each project, carried out either prior to or in parallel with the creation of images. Access to places usually closed to the public was a major challenge in the projects of Zoé Aubry (plastic and cosmetic surgery clinics) and Gabriela Löffel (the federal centre for asylum seekers [CFA] in Grand-Saconnex, then under construction). Laurence Rasti’s project was based on encounters, portraits and interviews with people without legal immigration status in Geneva.

In the resulting bodies of work, photography is central, but systematically articulated with text providing an important contextualisation of the images. In Laurence Rasti’s work, the portraits are placed in dialogue with excerpts from the testimonies and reflections of the people photographed. In Zoé Aubry’s work, quotes from newspaper articles provide information on the motivations of some of those who have resorted to cosmetic surgery during Covid. Finally, in Gabriela Löffel’s work, each image of the CFA construction site is accompanied by a text providing a legal definition or insight into the economic issues surrounding such a centre.

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Centre d’iconographie de la Bibliothèque de Genève, which preserves this new heritage in its collections and commissioned the project, and the Centre de la photographie Genève, which conceived and produced the exhibition in close collaboration with the artists.