Located in a grand neo-classical building in Parc des Bastions, the Bibliothèque de Genève is the University of Geneva library. The library hosts events such as exhibitions, conferences, talks, and workshops. Noteworthy among its regular programs is the December exhibition on the history of the Escalade, and the recurring event “Les jeudis midi à l’affiche,” featuring guest speakers discussing graphic posters from the library’s collection.
Graphic designers Roman Karrer; Vincent Sahli and Joanna Schaffter; Pauline Piguet and Rebecca Metzger (Studio Rozita); and Sabrina Cerea and Leonardo Angelucci bring diverse professional practices to the discussion, moderated by Cécile Nanjoud.
This session examines singularity as a graphic theme, comparing teams’ creative processes, visual strategies, and conceptual choices. Speakers explore how individuality manifests in poster design for the public realm, discuss material and typographic decisions, and reflect on collective approaches to a shared brief, offering insights into contemporary Swiss graphic practice.
In French.
Historian Patrick Auderset, drawing on a poster collection donated by the Unia trade union in 2022, presents research on labour mobilizations in Geneva from the 1920s to the 1990s.
The lecture examines how posters functioned as tools of communication and collective identity, exploring visual strategies, recurring motifs and the relationship between graphic design and labour politics. Auderset reveals how images shaped public memory and activism.
In French.
Isabella di Lenardo, EPFL, presents work on integrating heterogeneous corpora into spatiotemporal datasets, showing practical methods to convert disparate sources into structured interfaces for research and analysis.
The talk examines how AI and prompting transform these datasets into interactive interfaces for querying, exploration, and knowledge generation, addressing challenges in interoperability, temporal modelling, and user-directed discovery to reveal new insights across humanities datasets.
Historian Jean-Charles Giroud presents the life and work of Herbert Libiszewski (1897–1985), a major figure in Swiss graphic design who established himself in Paris before returning to Switzerland.
He examines Libiszewski’s contributions to travel poster design, tracing stylistic influences, production contexts and their role in shaping visual culture and tourism. The lecture explores key works, techniques and historical significance, revealing how poster art mediated modern travel imagery and national identity.
In French.
Moderator Claire-Lise Debluë, historian, oversees a series of roundtables bringing together photographers, artists and specialists in research, curatorship and conservation.
The programme examines photography’s bicentennial significance, exploring materiality, circulation, volume and authenticity to interrogate the image’s role in society. Each roundtable discusses research, collections and contemporary practices, often preceded by a presentation of a historical work or related artistic project, revealing connections across history and critical inquiry.
In French.
Anna Haas is a Fribourg-based illustrator and designer, trained in the Netherlands and Lucerne. Her practice spans editorial design, visual identities, digital applications and poster art; she is an internationally awarded practitioner and educator.
This lecture examines how illustration, publishing and digital media converge in contemporary graphic practice. Haas investigates processes that connect editorial storytelling, brand identity and interactive formats, discussing workflows, cross-disciplinary collaborations and the implications for visual communication. Attendees gain insight into designing across print and digital platforms.
In English.
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