Located in the heart of Geneva’s Old Town, the Barbier-Mueller Museum preserves, exhibits, and studies a collection of artworks of immense variety. Today, it comprises several thousand works spanning from antiquity to the present day and includes objects from every continent. Every six months, the Barbier-Mueller Museum offers new presentations of its collections and temporary exhibitions. The museum regularly invites contemporary artists to interpret the works in its collections and rethink the layout of the galleries, thereby shifting our understanding of the exhibited works over time. Lectures, talks, readings, and performances complement this exhibition program.
Vodou in Benin and Haiti explores a world of circulating spirits—deities, ancestors and zombies—whose movements structure social and cosmological life. The lecture investigates what spirits are within these traditions, the journeys they undertake and their purposes. By following the justice-dealing deity Heviosso, the Egungun dances in Benin and the flight of spirits with zombies in Haiti, the session examines a dynamic metaphysics in which gestures, illness and death are framed as meaningful events rather than natural occurrences.
In French.
Pleasing the Spirits gathers ritual objects, installations, photography and archival materials that trace sacred practices and cosmologies from several regions.
Multiple artists and cultural communities contribute works that celebrate ancient rites, ancestral presences and worldviews that challenge secular narratives.
Through sculptural forms, ceremonial artifacts, sound and photographic study, the exhibition evokes the persistence of spirit practices and questions how museums mediate belief, memory and cultural continuity.
In French.
Follow ancient spirits from across the world as they whisper secrets and invite you into a mysterious quest. Explore symbols, listen to stories, and create small artworks that reveal hidden meanings. Use curiosity and simple tools to solve playful challenges, see bright colors and hear soft rhythms that awaken your imagination. Short discoveries and hands-on activities will spark new ideas and bold questions. Are you ready to set off on this creative journey?
In French. Kids ages 5–10.
Pleasing the Spirits examines the persistence of spiritual practices and ritual memory in contemporary art. The exhibition gathers works that probe relationships between the visible and the invisible, testing how objects, sounds and gestures carry cultural memories.
Through an intimate, evocative visual language the show evokes ancestral presences and questions the act of offering and remembrance. It foregrounds materiality and performative traces, inviting reflection on how communities negotiate belief, heritage and transformation.
In French.
Ancestral spirits take over the Barbier-Mueller Museum for an interactive adventure designed for kids. Participants will unravel cultural mysteries, using curiosity and creativity to uncover secrets of spirits from around the globe.
In French. Kids ages 5 to 10.
Pleasing the Spirits invites you on a journey through the Barbier-Mueller Collection, showcasing artworks from around the globe. Curated by Séverine Fromaigeat and Paul Maheke, the exhibition offers an open-ended exploration of diverse objects, awakening spirits and uncovering territories to discover.
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