Reclaiming Spaces
Déborah Bron & Camille Sevez met at HEAD, Geneva School of Art and Design. Within the framework of their Master’s degree TRANSform. Art and Society, they shared a common reflection on art as a means of transforming the world, as well as on their capacity, as artists, to act in connection with the inhabitants of the rural territories they both come from.
The exhibition “Reclaiming Spaces” presents their work in Châteauvilain, Sergy and Montbard, three villages where they forged relationships with the inhabitants, collected stories and established community dynamics. Through installations, prints, sound archives and interactive devices, this exhibition demonstrates their artistic process: a practice rooted in exchange and observation, where art becomes a tool for mediation and for reinterpreting everyday life. They help revive rural traditions such as the ‘mondailles’ – moments of community sharing around simple actions – and design participatory mechanisms to enable the people and organisations involved to plan potential futures for their own living environments.
“Reclaiming Spaces” is thus an invitation to rethink spaces and local areas, to make them come alive and encourage participation, and to imagine new uses in dialogue with the inhabitants; an approach that echoes contemporary concerns about living in rural areas, about transmission and the resilience of local communities.
Exhibition organised in collaboration with HEAD, Geneva School of Art and Design, and the Swiss Cultural Centre
Curator : Christelle Kirchstetter, Director of the Frac Centre-Val de Loire
©Deborah.Bron & Camille.Sevez