Featured Events in Geneva in June, 2024 (May Updated)

Contributing to a museum's development takes many forms and motivations, for example by enriching its collections with one or more works, or by financially supporting its activities. And why choose to make a donation? To contribute to the community's heritage, which will be passed on to future generations, because of their attachment to the institution, or in memory of a loved one to whom the object once belonged. Over the decades, the collections at Musée Ariana have been shaped by the generosity of donors and the loyalty of many patrons. This exhibition is divided into twelve sections, highlighting some of the stories and tales of donations that have shaped the majority of our collections. To mark the occasion, a new module has been inaugurated in the Accumulation room; its presentation reveals the different ways in which the museum's collections have been enriched, in line with its acquisition policy.

Connect in Pharma 2024 is a highly anticipated event that will gather the key players in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries at the heart of Europe's thriving pharma sector in Geneva. With a primary focus on putting patients at the forefront, Connect in Pharma aims to facilitate networking and collaboration among industry experts. The event will take place at Palexpo, located at Route François-Peyrot 30, 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland, from June 5th to June 6th, 2024. This prestigious gathering will provide a platform for pharmaceutical and biotechnological professionals to share insights, discuss innovative strategies, and showcase cutting-edge products and solutions. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions, forge valuable partnerships, and stay updated on the latest industry trends. Connect in Pharma 2024 promises to be an exceptional event that will shape the future of the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sectors in Europe. Mark your calendars and join us in Geneva for an unforgettable experience.

EPHJ-EPMT-SMT 2024 is the premier trade show worldwide that unites the expertise of high-precision skills in watchmaking, jewelry, micro-technology, and medical technology. This extraordinary event takes place in the heart of Europe, specifically in the vibrant city of Geneva. The venue for this remarkable gathering is none other than Palexpo, located at Route François-Peyrot 30, 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland. From June 11th to June 14th, 2024, EPHJ-EPMT-SMT 2024 will bring together professionals from various industries, showcasing their mastery in high-precision technology. This trade show emerged from the recognition of the immense potential in fostering collaboration and synergy among these specialized fields. Attendees can expect to witness an awe-inspiring array of cutting-edge innovations, state-of-the-art products, and groundbreaking advancements. With its serious, official, and calm atmosphere, EPHJ-EPMT-SMT 2024 is an ideal platform for professionals seeking to expand their knowledge, network with industry leaders, and explore lucrative business opportunities. Whether you are involved in watchmaking, jewelry, micro-technology, or medical technology, EPHJ-EPMT-SMT 2024 is an unmissable event that promises to deliver unparalleled insights, inspiration, and connections. Mark your calendars and prepare to immerse yourself in the epitome of precision and excellence.

Submission Only Grappling Series 08 is set to take place on June 29th, 2024, at Dragon House MMA in Daly City. This event will feature both Gi and No-Gi matches, with competitors allowed to use all submissions based on their belt ranking. White Belts will have 5-minute rounds, Blue and Purple Belts 6 minutes, and Brown and Black Belts 8 minutes. Matches that do not end in a submission will be deemed a draw, with no overtime. The competition fee ranges from $65 to $90, depending on the number of brackets entered, while Black Belts will compete for free. Future events may include grappling world titles in various weight classes. Athletes can expect straightforward match-ups based on traditional MMA weight classes and age brackets. Weigh-ins will occur at 10 am on the day of the event at 2990 Geneva Ave, Daly City, CA 94014. Professors and athletes interested in participating can inquire by calling 415-349-4467. Submission Only Grappling Series 08 is proudly presented by DragonHouse MMA.

Paul Thek (1933–1988), one of the most distinctive American artists of the late 20th century, steadfastly refused to conform to the dominant movements of his time. Working on the fringes of Pop art and Minimalism in the 1960s, he developed new forms of representation with the human body as his subject. Thek came to prominence in the early 1960s for his (later renamed )—body fragments represented as chunks of flesh, sculpted from colored wax and encased in Plexiglas boxes. He showed them at Stable Gallery and Pace Gallery, two leading New York art venues of the era. But the limited recognition his work gained at home, coupled with his aversion for the US art system, prompted Thek to distance himself from American society and spend most of his time in Europe, especially Italy and the Netherlands. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Thek produced a series of temporary, immersive, collaborative installations based around the universal and symbolic motif of the pyramid. At the same time, he rekindled his passion for drawing and painting, which remained central to his practice until his death from AIDS in 1988. Between 1969 and 1975, Thek spent part of each year on the Italian island of Ponza. The experience opened his eyes to the possibility of a simple life of both ecstasy and pantheism, which inspired a series of paintings on newspaper representing the infinite expanse of the ocean and the natural elements, reflecting a sense of reconnection with the origins of creation. In the 1980s, Thek’s paintings captured his growing interest in mysticism, nurtured during frequent retreats at monasteries in Vermont. A spiritual and deeply religious man, he was heavily influenced by the mystic writings of Saint Augustine and Meister Eckhart, among others. Switzerland played a prominent role in bringing Thek’s work to a wider audience, with the artist receiving support from Harald Szeemann and Jean-Christophe Ammann. However, his pieces have not been exhibited in a Swiss museum since 1996, when the traveling show was hosted at the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kunsthalle in Zurich. The current exhibition at MAMCO adds a new chapter to this history, taking a fresh look at the work of this unique figure of US counterculture, whose art defies classification. It features a representative selection of Thek’s pieces from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, showcasing the diverse forms of expression—sculpture, painting, drawing, and engraving—that characterized his artistic practice. The exhibition explores the indivisible link between the body and the spirit, between the sacred and the profane, between nature and technology, between life and death—the very oppositions that permeate Thek’s art and make his unparalleled body of work a form of initiation journey. Exhibition curated by Valérie Da Costa, in collaboration with Françoise Ninghetto

Romanian-born artist Paul Neagu (1938–2004) worked first as an electrician and then as a topographer in his native Bucharest. After teaching himself philosophy and geometric drawing, he went on to study classical art at the Nicolae Grigorescu Academy of Fine Arts. He then spent some time traveling and exhibiting his works within the Soviet Union and later in Western Europe. In 1970, Neagu moved permanently to London with the help of Scottish curator Richard Demarco. Alongside his work as a practicing artist, Neagu taught at several of the city’s art schools, where his students included Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread, Tony Cragg, and Marc Camille Chaimowicz. Before settling in the UK, Neagu developed a deliberately restrictive sculptural practice, using a narrow range of inexpensive materials such as matchboxes, cardboard, wood, and leather to create a series of box-like structures, some of which were hinged. These pieces were exhibited in the streets of Bucharest, as captured in the 1969 film . In his , published in Edinburgh in 1969 and inspired by his anthroposophical readings, Neagu set out the theoretical principles that would inform his future practice—a vision of art that is experienced with the five senses and that calls for humans to be at one with their environment. This approach is reflected in his series: honeycombed grid patterns divide the sensitive parts of the human body—fingers, hands, lips, ears, breasts—or, sometimes, the entire body, into hollow, rectangular cells. Overlaid with a geometric grid in this way, the human figure becomes part of a system that Neagu named the “Generative Art Code,” reflecting his belief that our philosophical and social experiences are shaped by the dynamic interplay between three different aspects of our existence: our primal instincts (represented by the triangle), the order and rationality of Cartesian society (the rectangle), and the self-revelation that comes when we are freed from the shackles of norms and constraints (the circle). This emancipation can only be achieved through movement: jumping, dancing, and “going tornado”—a recurring theme in Neagu’s work. In 1972, having laid these theoretical foundations, Neagu established the Generative Art Group, a collective in whose name he signed a catalog and a number of works despite being the only non-fictitious member. The other four members, who were each given a name and a backstory, represented individual parts of a greater whole. The most pivotal decade of Neagu’s career started in the early 1970s. His works were exhibited three times—in 1972, 1976 and 1981—at the Rivolta gallery in Lausanne, with which he had a close personal relationship. For each of those shows Neagu took a holistic approach, also designing the decor and staging elements. The exhibition at MAMCO features a substantial body of engravings and drawings produced by Neagu for the Lausanne-based gallery, as well as a collection of archive documents provided by the Rivolta family. It pays tribute to a singular artist who preferred to stay out of the limelight but who, in his own unassuming way, made a lasting impact on the European art scene. Exhibition curated by Elisabeth Jobin With the support of the Rivolta gallery archives and The Paul Neagu Estate (UK)

Hsu studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before moving to New York in 1979 to focus on his art. He landed a part-time night job as a word processor at a Wall Street law firm, where he worked with the early use of the screen in word processing, giving him first-hand insight into the interaction between user and machine. On his off-hours, he began the exploration of how to visually convey the situation of his body interacting with the computer screen. The diversity of materials that Hsu employed (wood, vinyl cement compound, ceramic tiles, polystyrene, resin, rubber) constituted his aesthetic vocabulary at the time, bringing an unsettling sense of reality to the notion of the interface: the skin, membranes and screens where information and perception meet – or take shape. Hsu was then one of the few artists exploring the concept of human-machine hybridization. His pieces appear as if made flesh, covered with skin, embedded with architectural details (windows, ventilation grids, drain holes). The result – a sensual but injured body-like form affixed to electronic circuits – is suggestive of a metamorphosis in progress: these objects are brimming with potential and brooding with a sense of menace, as if something could burst out at any moment, or as if a transformation might take place. From the 1990s onward, Hsu starts a teaching career and withdraws from the limelight. He creates silkscreen prints on canvas before marking the dawn of the digital age by embracing Photoshop in early 2000. Abandoning his earlier practice of making art by hand, he turned to working on screen, producing works on canvas using digital imaging with wide-format printing and the use of silicone. At a time when technology is increasingly an extension of the body, the presence of machines in Hsu’s oeuvre is becoming ever vaguer and more unclear: skin and screen intermingle, merge and combine until, eventually, they become one. Exhibition curated by Lionel Bovier and Elisabeth Jobin, in collaboration with Secession, Vienna With the support of the Pictet Group Foundation

Erica Pedretti (1930–2022) was born and grew up in Šternberk, Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic). In 1945, she arrived in Switzerland as a war refugee. She studied at the Zurich School of Art and Design before having to emigrate to New York in 1950, where she worked as a goldsmith. The patterns and motifs that were staples of Pedretti’s trade would appear time and again in a body of work spanning more than seven decades. She developed a special interest in fish and birds, which fascinated her on account of both their freedom of movement and the natural elements—water and air—through which they moved. Over the years, Pedretti developed an artistic practice marked by hybridization: bodies and beings (animals, plants, humans, and celestial creatures) imbued with allusions to notions of otherness and exile. Pedretti returned to Switzerland in 1952, settling in the Canton of Graubünden. She married Swiss painter Gian Pedretti, with whom she would go on to have five children. In the 1960s, she steadily renounced working with metal in favor of paper, producing series of often narrative etchings based around the motif of the angel. Pedretti’s art is indissociable from her work as a writer, which had its origins in her childhood. She pursued both passions in parallel, reflecting her inclination for splitting her attention, without distinction, across multiple projects at once. Although Pedretti’s art was exhibited in several solo shows in Switzerland (Bern in 1975, Solothurn in 1976, Schaffhausen in 1981), it tended to be eclipsed by her prolific writings. She became one of the most widely read authors in Switzerland, publishing numerous articles, radio dramas, and novels. In the late 1970s, the family moved to La Neuveville in the Canton of Bern, where Pedretti began producing sculptures in her large studio. Her output from this period included , a series of fragile, hollow objects that she displayed hanging from the ceiling. These pieces were formed from a wire frame, onto which Pedretti applied plaster, acrylic, feathers, and impregnated fabric in a manner suggestive of bones, membranes, skin, scales, and wings. Fish- and bird-like features blended into one another, although these objects were without exception in a state of suspension. At the same time, Pedretti experimented with pen and pencil drawings on paper, creating intricate patterns—meshes, twists, and turns with an organic quality—interspersed with beaks, shells, plants, and eyes. This surreal quality soon transposed to her sculptures: vast wings, measuring several meters across, covered with latex-stiffened fabric—Pedretti shared a fascination for latex with Swiss artist Heidi Bucher, her contemporary. Veined with bamboo and wire, these flexible, translucent wings appear as if torn from a being, taking on a life of their own. Some were intended to be displayed outdoors, in parks and other public spaces, where they would wear out over time until their ultimate destruction. Pedretti’s hanging objects form the core of the MAMCO exhibition, which looks back at the artist’s experimentation with different materials in the latter half of the 1970s, along with her interest in the hybridization of beings and shapes. Curated by Elisabeth Jobin With the support of Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture, Oertli Stiftung, and the Municipalité de la Neuveville

Don't miss the upcoming event featuring DTG/Lil Windex in St. Catharines on June 2nd at Warehouse, along with Kryple and special guest Robbie G. The show will kick off at 8:00 pm, welcoming all ages. Tickets are available for $30 in advance for general admission, with VIP Meet & Greet passes priced at $75, offering a chance to meet Lil Windex, DTG, and Kryple. For those interested in performing or sponsoring, reach out via email at info@robbiegpresents.com. Lil Windex, also known as Godfrey, gained popularity through comedic skits and music videos, showcasing his unique talent. DTG, on the other hand, has made a mark with his captivating music videos and engaging content. Robbie G, another talented artist, will also be gracing the stage with his electrifying performances. Get ready for an unforgettable night filled with music and entertainment. Secure your tickets now and be part of this exciting event in St. Catharines.

Musée Ariana 's contemporary collection has evolved considerably in recent years, placing itself increasingly at the crossroads of applied arts, design and contemporary art. This exhibition is conceived as a retrospective of works acquired between 2010 and 2024, often in connection with the numerous contemporary exhibitions organized during this period. It is intended to reflect the scientific team's free, forward-looking approach to the latest developments in Swiss and international ceramics, in order to gain an overview of the development of the artistic scene in this field. This freedom is always conditional on the generosity of a patron, as the museum does not have an acquisition budget.