Art in Geneva: the Ariana museum welcomed its new director

What motivated your postulation?

I believe that after this rather conceptual. programmatic phase of the Mah of tomorrow. I wanted to return to the concrete fields of cultural production, the enrichment of collections, project management and management. The timing was perfect with the culmination of the architectural competition for the museum. art geneva: ariana museum welcomed The history of Ariana. Additionally. the work accomplished Isabelle Naef art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new Galuba. the place that the institution occupies in the hearts of Genevans also convinced me.

The fields of ceramics. art geneva: ariana museum welcomed glass are the territories of art. history and social history, science and technology or even design. They have many stories and can receive multiple looks. Add to that the exceptional framework of Ariana. which is a real setting. art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new. the well -known benevolence of the team in place, and you had a motivated candidate!

Why did your profile convince the jury, do you think?

I have the feeling that my desire to project. to carry this collection further. to give new senses and to reveal other potentials from the collection may have seduced them.

Isabelle Naef Galuba recently told us that Ariana was very successful on art. art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new geneva: ariana museum welcomed the side of international tourists. but less among the Genevans…

The museum has an international reputation. It is very identified. art geneva: ariana museum welcomed Its position in an international district is surely reinforcing this. and it is true that 80% of visitors are not from here. This proportion also indicates the need to offer the Genevans to reclaim the museum that Gustave RevilllID bequeathed to them. His art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new history, his gesture and the heritage he has transmitted to us are incredible. The Genevans may not appropriate it enough.

How to reconnect them to the museum?

There is something to invent. by continuing to tell beautiful stories. provoking other meetings with an audience a priori little interested in the fields of ceramics and glass. The answer is not unique. but it is certain art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new that a specialized museum like Ariana has the ability to seduce a more general audience.

You can also focus on other points. Claire Fitzgerald, the chief curator, conducts an art geneva: ariana museum welcomed important work of intersectional rereading of the collections. There is a contribution to the critical reflection that society has on itself.

These areas are therefore those of an important dynamism in scientific terms, but also in artistic matters. A new generation of artists is expressed today. The complex art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new filiation which combines ceramics. glass with the field of applied arts and that of the fine arts evolves. We must continue this exploration.

Not easy to take the direction of an establishment that has known the same director for more than fifteen years …

Sure, it’s even quite intimidating. But Isabelle. who has art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new always put her passion for the benefit of the museum. did not locate him at all in an ideology, quite the contrary.

For the future. art geneva: ariana museum welcomed other issues are taking art geneva: ariana museum welcomed shape, because other colleagues will retire. It will then be a question of intelligently renewing to perpetuate all the formidable work accomplished so far.

You who have worked in many institutions, you are not going to have the Bougeotte here?

But the Ariana is precisely a place that art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new has a move! We work with institutions and associations from other countries, from China, Japan, Norway … Connections are multiple, and physical meetings are possible. There are lots of things to do, we don’t get bored at all.

A theme or an idea art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new particularly has you for your mandate?

I would really like to deepen the theme of breakage, from the broken thing. How many failures. broken were necessary to achieve this for example (Editor’s note: he points a vase in a art geneva: ariana. museum welcomed museum window)? art geneva: ariana museum welcomed There is symbolic breakage, the action of repairing, fragility … In short, many things to explore in this notion.

Finally, a single word to define your mandate?

I would say: the rest. For Ariana as for all museums, we never invent quite. It is a question of art geneva: ariana museum welcomed new receiving what was done before us. taking care of it. It is also a question of not being intimidated by this heritage and writing new things.