Dedicated to ceramics and glass, the Musée Ariana is situated in a majestic 19th-century building within a 4-hectare park near the United Nations. In addition to its permanent collection, the museum regularly curates temporary exhibitions, frequently featuring the work of contemporary artists. Musee Ariana provides guided tours and organizes workshops for children.
The Tender Buttons exhibition offers a multidisciplinary exploration centered on buttons, delving into their identity and historical significance. Featuring over three hundred ceramic and glass buttons, the exhibition interacts with the museum’s works to highlight their role in both formal experimentation and socio-cultural narratives. The exhibition’s architecture evokes the commercial arcades of the 19th century, a pivotal era for button industrialization. Curated by Claire FitzGerald, the exhibition is supported by the Swiss Fashion Museum and showcases never-before-seen pieces from several prestigious collections.
An extensive survey assembled from a long-standing research collection devoted to glass, this exhibition takes a contemporary look at a millennia-old material. Over two hundred glass and mixed-media works, including sculptural objects, design pieces and installations, testify to a transdisciplinary experimental spirit. Featuring artists such as Ettore Sottsass, Pierre Charpin, Betty Woodman, Bob Wilson, Giuseppe Penone, Jana Sterbak and James Lee Byars, the show examines materiality, technique and the porous boundaries between craft, design and contemporary art.
Opening : Thursday 23 April, 18:00
Guided Tours (in French)
Part of the Festival de la Bâtie anniversary programme, this evening blends contemporary circus and live music in a sequence of short performances. Performers include Julian Vogel, Amanda Homa and Simone Aubert, Éloi Calame, Arsenal Mikebe, Melina and Marara Kelly. The works mix physical virtuosity, improvisation and sonic textures, alternating intimate solo moments and kinetic ensemble pieces. The atmosphere is playful, sharp and often tender, privileging close encounters between performers and audience.
Directed and choreographed by Nicolas Barry, La Demande d’asile stages the brutality of the asylum procedure through the bodies and voices of two performers, Sophie Billon and Nangaline Gomis. Blending dance and theatre, the piece makes administrative violence tangible and centres the specific difficulties faced by LGBTQIA+ people when forced to narrate their histories and identities under interrogation. Sparse scenography and intense physicality probe memory, vulnerability and survival.
In French.
Led by Simone Aubert’s live music, this circus-music piece features acrobats for whom aerial suspension is second nature. Against an original score, performers defy gravity to weave a precise airborne choreography that balances tension and lyricism. The intimate creation (2026) lasts about 30 minutes and is designed for a family audience, suitable from age 3. The presentation blends musical texture and physical poetry without dialogue.
Acid Coco blends Caribbean rhythms and tropical Andean currents into a vibrant live set that crosses cumbia, champeta, reggaeton and electronic music. The group layers propulsive percussion, warm melodic lines and shimmering electronic textures to summon a festive yet nuanced sound world. The performance favours danceable grooves, call-and-response vocals and sudden dynamic shifts, moving between intimate, rhythmic passages and exuberant collective bursts that invite movement and shared celebration.
Culture, curated weekly.
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