Out-of-the-box workshop – Art-Werk: imagining the resources that make up a school
The workshops took place from November 27 to December 6, 2025, at the Salle communale du Faubourg, as part of Phase I: Co-Creation of the Biennale (re)connection.earth (03) – Sensitive Resources.
The workshops were given to 5-7P classes from schools in the canton of Geneva during the week, and one workshop was open to the public, regardless of age.
Where do the leads in your pencils come from? What natural resources lie hidden beneath your school? After a treasure hunt to discover the retrospective exhibition created by artists and 500 children from the canton, pupils will investigate the origin of the materials around them.
Lasting two 45-minute periods, the workshop draws on the works on display to co-construct the theme of the next Biennale, (re)connecting.earth (03), which will focus on sensitive resources.
This experimental approach gives free rein to the imagination, knowledge, and creativity of young people. It invites them to observe, imagine, and act differently when faced with nature and everyday materials.
By combining visual arts, natural sciences, and sustainability education, these workshops encourage a sensitive and reflective approach to the interdependencies between living organisms, raw materials, and human uses.
The workshops are led by mediators specializing in art and the environment. The students' works can be continued in class and presented during Phase II of the (re)connecting.earth (03) – Sensitive Resources Biennial in spring 2026.
Following these workshops, teachers are free to offer workshops in class to continue the reflection by inviting pupils to create instructional works based on the questions raised during the workshop.
This program was developed in collaboration with the Department of Public Instruction (DIP), and is supported by the City of Geneva and the Canton of Geneva.
Opening of the (re)connecting.earth (03) Biennale, Phase I: Co-Creation. Image: Jakob Engelhard.
Out-of-the-box workshop – Duchamp aux Bains des Pâquis
In 2025, eight publics workshops were led by mediators on the theme of ecology and the presence of water in cities, in dialogue with contemporary art. These workshops were created following the Biennale (re)connecting. earth (02) – Beyond Water presented in Geneva in 2024.
These workshops are now taking place in primary schools through the Duchamp au Lac program – An artistic immersion in aquatic life.
Workshop at Les Bains des Pâquis, summer 2025. Image: Mathilde Schibler.
Out-of-the-box workshop – HEAD – ACTION NOW!
In February 2022, Caroline Bachmann offered the ACTION NOW! (Re)connecting.earth workshop to around twenty students at the Geneva University of Art and Design.
Since Marcel Duchamp created the first work of art in the form of instructions in 1919, many artists have created user manuals, encouraging the public to take action. Through theory and practice, the workshop offers participants the opportunity to discover these artistic forms, experiment with instructions, and develop a process for creating, exhibiting, and performing “instructions for use” created solo or in small groups.
The workshop is based on the idea of a “crisis of sensitivity,” theorized by French philosopher Baptiste Morizot. While current discourse on the environment, climate change, and CO2 emissions is highly abstract, the aim of the week-long workshop was to discover how the works designed for the project could promote, in a concrete or metaphorical way, direct contact with the immediate environment.
The students were therefore asked to reflect on and create instructions, which were then presented to the public at an event at Les Bains des Pâquis.
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Instruction by Guillemette Gorrias, 2022.
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