MATZA Edgelands Geneva

Collective spaces and underground networks in the age of digitalization.

After the editions of MATZA Edgelands in Medellin and Cucuta in Colombia and Nairobi in Kenya, Geneva is the fourth city to host the project. In the anonymity of a big city, individuals express their need to belong and to feel safe by gathering in communities, a phenomenon that is nowadays amplified and dynamized by digital networks. The creation of these communities contributes to the affirmation of their members but at the same time participates in a certain fragmentation of society. MATZA Edgelands Geneva is interested in the emergence of these underground clusters and the centrifugal but also centripetal forces they generate within society.

From April 27 to May 29, 2023, Geneva will see a selection of local and international artists invited to work by making local realities and global issues resonate. During 17 days, MATZA will work in the field, in collaboration with a wide range of associative partners and local actors, in close collaboration with the cooperative Ressources Urbaines. An exhibition will then take place in the emblematic building of the former Charmilles post office, which has recently been allocated to cultural projects.

MATZAproduction: Séverin Guelpa and Anja Wyden Guelpa (co-curators) and Noémie Gambino (project manager).

Ex-post office of les Charmilles
Rue des Charmilles 23
1203 Geneva

Residency and workshop
From April 27 to May 11, 2023

Public discussions
29.04 – 11h
Towards a new social contract? From Rousseau’s writings to the current context
With Donatella Bernardi, Director of la Maison Rousseau et Littérature and Nicolas Nova, socio-anthopologist
-> MLR, Grand-Rue 40, Geneva

02.05 – 17h
Being an artist here and elsewhere, involvement and responsibility
With Zelal Karatas and Besmellah AMIRI, artists and migrants in Geneva and the artists of the exhibition
-> Ex-post office of Charmilles

14.05 – 16h
Edgelands, for synergies between art and science
With the team of the Edgelands Insitute, MATZA and Thomas Dworzak, photographer of the Magnum agency
-> Ex-post office of Charmilles

Opening on May 12, from 6pm
Exhibition May 12 – 28, 2023
Mon-Fri 5pm – 7pm
Sat-Sun 2pm – 7pm

Guided tours:
14.05 – 15h Turkish, 16h French
17.05 – 18h Arabic
21.05 – 15h French, 16h Farsi/Dari
24.05 – 18h Somali
28.05 – 15h French, 16h Tigrigna

With the support of and in collaboration with the Edgelands Institute, Ressources Urbaines (RU), Pro Helvetia, the Canton of Geneva, le Bureau de l’Intégration des Etrangers (BIE), the Embassy of Foreign Artists (EOFA) and la Maison Rousseau et Littérature (MRL).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)