Following the workshops led by art-werk, classes continue to create

Between November 26 and December 7, 2025, the co-creation initiative of the (re)connecting.earth Biennial of Art and Urban Nature took shape at the Salle du Faubourg. As part of this initiative, several elementary school classes from the canton of Geneva were invited to participate in a workshop titled Imagining the Resources That Allow You to Go to School .

This workshop invited students to take a fresh look at the everyday objects in their school environment. Through a collective exploration, the children discovered the different raw materials that make up the objects around them : wood, metal, glass, and even petroleum, and reflected on their origins. Where do these materials come from? How are they transformed into the objects we use every day? And what happens to them when they are no longer used? These questions provided an opportunity to discuss with the students the concepts of natural resources, material transformation, and recycling.

Combining discussion, observation, and hands-on activities, the workshop encouraged students to develop a sensitive and critical understanding of the life cycle of objects. In particular, the children worked in small groups with familiar objects to imagine their journey: from the extraction of the resources needed to make them to their possible future transformations.

Following this session, the classes were invited to continue exploring this topic independently at school. The students chose an object from their classroom and imagined its life story: the origin of its materials, its use, and then its future: reuse, transformation, or recycling. This reflection led to the creation of A3-sized works combining drawing, collage, and/or painting.

Classes are now starting to send us their first projects. Through these drawings, the students unfold inventive and sensitive narratives about the journeys of objects and materials.

We have already received the artwork from Geisendorf Central School, where the students imagined the story of a piece of chalk that constantly tries to hide in the classroom to escape the teacher… only to end up being used on the blackboard after all.

For their part, the students at École des Ranches CM imagined the origins and journeys of everyday objects: their pencil cases, pencils, the blackboard, a chair, or even the trash can. These familiar classroom items, in their stories, travel across eras and continents.

More works are expected in the coming weeks, and we can’t wait to discover what new stories the classroom objects will have to tell us.