Artists Daniel Dewar and Grégory Gicquel present a large-scale installation conceived as a traversable architecture that reconfigures the museum courtyard into a mutable living environment. Seven works dialog with sculpture, and two pieces were created specifically to engage the lapidary collection and the Pierre-aux-Dames megalith. Using carved stone surfaces, constructed siphons and modular plaster and resin elements, the project explores material metamorphosis, bodily presence and the shifting relations between monumentality and domestic scale.

Opening: Thursday 16 July, 18:30

Jean-Étienne Liotard’s portraits of the imperial family, notably Marie‑Antoinette, include eleven drawings widely regarded as masterpieces. This project examines the identification of the sitter children and the works’ provenance through a cross-disciplinary investigation. In collaboration with the University of Oxford, the Idiap research institute and the School of Criminal Sciences at the University of Lausanne, historians of art and specialists in the eighteenth century join AI researchers and forensic experts to reveal new insights into authorship and history.

This evolving exhibition explores Geneva painting from public collections, bringing together 82 works created between 1444 and 1782. Unfolding in three acts, the exhibition evolves alongside the museum’s ongoing research and restoration work.

Act I: Before 1535, Surviving the Storm – 26 September 2026 – 21 March 2027
Rare works that survived the Protestant iconoclasm of 1535, including Konrad Witz’s 1444 panels.

Act II: 1536–1685, The Secular Turn – 23 March – 19 September 2027
Following the Reformation, Geneva’s artistic landscape was transformed, with artists increasingly turning to secular subjects for both private and public settings.

Act III: 1685–1782, A Spectacular Flourishing – 25 September 2027 – March 2028
The Age of Enlightenment saw painting flourish in Geneva, with portraits and landscapes by artists including Robert Gardelle, Barthélemy Guillibaud and Jean-Étienne Liotard.

An ever-evolving journey through nearly three centuries of painting in Geneva, revealing its history, artistic techniques and the fascinating work behind its conservation.

John M Armleder presents an interchange-based exhibition that foregrounds objects drawn from students’ suitcases. Through object-based works and subtle interventions, the show probes modes of observation, intimacy and collective memory. Personal belongings are rearranged as visual prompts that evoke histories, pedagogy and everyday cinematics. The artist’s restrained interventions invite reflection on how small domestic items circulate meanings and facilitate encounters, revealing how private narratives surface within a communal field of attention.

American artist Rachel Marks presents an original work conceived during a research residency responding to the museum’s collection, notably the Pozzi fonds. The project is research-led and site-specific, articulating a dialogue between archival objects and contemporary practice. Using material inquiry and layered processes, Marks investigates provenance, display conventions and the traces of personal histories embedded in collections. The commissioned piece will enter the museum’s permanent holdings, extending the collection’s narrative through contemporary intervention.

Opening: Thursday 8 October, 18:00