Territory as Palimpseste

Since the 1970s, the Genevan thinker André Corboz has been questioning notions of landscape, city and heritage in the polycentric, urbanised territory of Switzerland, which is undergoing spectacular spatial change.

The exhibition immerses visitors in the intellectual laboratory and multiple works of André Corboz, offering an overview of his oeuvre. Through sketchbooks, photographs and graphic documents, it sheds light on Corboz’s working methods and reveals the topicality of his narrative strategies and his activities as a cultural critic, writer and teacher.

Curation : André Bideau & Sonja Hildebrand
with Anna Bernardi, Elena Cogato Lanza and Frida Grahn

Historian, cultural critic, poet, journalist and photographer, André Corboz (1928-2012) has influenced his time through a wide variety of disciplines and languages. From Palladio to the Territorial Grid of the United States, from planning during the French Enlightenment to postmodern Switzerland, his subjects go beyond the scope of the historian as it is usually described.

Corboz engaged in meticulous forms of self-observation and notation, keeping records of most of his research projects, as well as his many travels. The exhibition has two main themes: How to read the territory (A) and Knowledge production and historiography (B); addressing, on one hand, the lasting contribution to the discourses around landscape and urban development that Corboz theorised as an interrelated space; and, on the other hand, the evolution of this self-trained historian who travelled through multiple disciplinary fields, countries, and different cultures.

Opening Monday September 25, 6:30 p.m., in
Opening conference followed by an aperitif
André Bideau & Sonja Hildebrand

Conference Monday October 16, 6:30 p.m., in
On heritage
Paul Bouet & Bricklab, Abdulrahman and Turki Hisham Gazzaz
Moderation Alia Bengana

Conference Monday November 27, 6:30 p.m., fr
On territory
Georges Descombes, Rainer Michael Mason & Ariane Widmer
Moderation Paola Viganò

Guided tour Monday November 27, 5:00 p.m., in
by André Bideau, upon registration

Guided tour Monday December 4, 5:00 p.m., fr
by Elena Cogato Lanza, upon registration