Located in the heart of the Old Town, in the birthplace of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the MRL is a six-story cultural hub centered on literature. The venue features a permanent exhibition on Rousseau and engages with contemporary issues related to his works. It hosts debates, performances, and educational activities, while also offering residencies for writers and researchers. Additionally, visitors can enjoy a café within the space.
Set off on mythic adventures with Odyssey heroes and wild goddesses. Through animated storytelling and live double bass accompaniment, children follow Ulysses and Artemis across tales of love, courage and daring quests. Projected illustrations spark imagination while voice and music bring characters to life. The show invites playful listening, vivid visual moments and gentle surprises that stimulate curiosity and storytelling skills.
In French. Kids ages 4 and up.
Conceived and performed by Alexandre Pateau, La Panne transforms Dürrenmatt’s black comedy into a gastrotheatrical solo that turns a dinner table into a tribunal. Pateau inhabits every role, blending sharp comic timing with moral unease as three former lawyers re‑try history’s great cases over a feast. Sound designer Clément Rousseaux and props designer Nicola Sartorio shape a tactile, immersive stage world. The piece oscillates between farce and cruelty, probing justice, guilt and complicity in intimate, sensory detail.
In French.
An audiovisual parcours immerses visitors in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s life and work, arguing that his writings continue to provoke contemporary debate. Through seven thematic niches, the presentation examines Rousseau’s paradoxes — from individual freedom to social critique — and invites reflection on how his ideas anticipate modern challenges. The session explores tensions in his thought and encourages critical questioning of present assumptions, revealing why Rousseau remains relevant for current political and cultural discussions.
In English at 11:30 am
In French at 2 pm
Thomas Flahaut, novelist and dramatist trained at the Swiss Literary Institute of Biel, has published several novels with Éditions de l’Olivier and poetry at Castor Astral.
This workshop builds a collective “Geneva Directory of Monsters”, mapping strange, dreamlike and horrific urban phenomena and imagining monsters that inhabit spaces of social violence. Participants will examine the hybrid zone between reality and the fantastic to explore how fiction can reveal urban tensions and make visible hidden forms of violence.
In French.
Marie NDiaye, winner of the Prix Femina and the Prix Goncourt, is one of the leading voices in contemporary francophone literature. Her work investigates filiation, exile, questions of identity and relations of domination. This meeting revisits her remarkable career, examines her writing process and probes the major themes that run through her oeuvre, offering critical insight into narrative strategies and ethical concerns.
In French.
Facilitated by Hinde Kaddour, this writing workshop explores the voices of children using anonymized audio recordings. Participants listen attentively and produce short written forms — fragments, bursts, and altered transcriptions — that preserve the uniqueness of child speech without smoothing it, letting voice shape language. Through close listening and short exercises, the session examines ethical considerations, stylistic strategies and techniques for keeping oral rhythm and texture in writing.
In French.
Culture, curated weekly.
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