«Jorge Menna Barreto and Joelson Buggilla» at UTOPIANA Residency (Switzerland)

Between February and September 2019, Brazilian artists Jorge Menna Barreto and Joelson Buggilla integrated the 2019 UTOPIANA residency, held in Geneva, Switzerland. Sharing an interest in the universe of plants and autonomous food, the artists, who had already produced collaboratively on previous occasions, were able to create three works based on rigorous immersion in the Geneva Library, research at the Bodmer Museum library, and collecting local plants. 

Invited by UTOPIANA, they integrated a collective exhibition entitled 100 Ecologies that occupied Le Commum from September 10 to October 10.  Anna Barseghian’s curatorial proposal consisted in creating an environment in which fifty artists were able to discuss, through their work, the different notions of ecology in their daily practices. In a propositive and interdisciplinary way, the work «Biodiversity Soup», presented during the opening of the exhibition, brought visitors and artists together in a moment of sharing a broth made with ingredients from the region. Breaking the logic of the vernissages, the sharing of soup collaborated with the feeling of coexistence among the participants. 

The artists also exhibited the work «Table Tongue», a table composed of onions and pumpkins that united the Rua des Bains and the interior of the exhibition, and «Bad Herbs», an already existing project that, during the residency period, acquired a site-specific character by exposing the weeds of the region on a long bluish curtain, created with the technique of cyanotype, an old and forgotten photographic technique, that delimited the space at the entrance of the exhibition. 

With the support of the COINCIDENCIA program, the artists also held workshops open to the public, and participated in a series of workshops by artist Marie Van Berchem, who also took part in the exhibition.