Dual exhibition in Geneva: "Living the Squat, Countdown of an Expulsion"
Researchers at the NCCR LIVES have documented the living of Rroms, Latinos, Spanish and Senegalese squatters expelled from Prés-de-Vidy end of March 2012 by the City of Lausanne. To see from June 15 to 29, 2012 at Uni Mail.
"Leaving the slum, it is probably escape
an unbearable misery;
is it not also abandon a world,
which one may emphasize - sometimes with regret -
certain values, after having lost them?"
Abdelmalek Sayad
Neighborhood of Vidy, Lausanne. Cosy offices that host insurance companies and research laboratories, outposts of a rich country.
Neighborhood of Vidy, Lausanne. Former gardens damaged by time and forgetfulness: here migrants have found refuge and are seeking fortune.
An insignificant little road separates these two worlds, strange neighborhood as close as ever, still remote.
At the height of winter, the vulnerability of some cannot be ignored by others. In the cold and the snow, in deprivation, the beautiful days are long awaited. The day of the eviction approach.
Researchers at the NCCR LIVES "Overcoming vulnerability: Life course perspectives" wanted to trace the social history of this urban squat. For several months, they joined the circle of friendship, family and couple relationships, to understand the reasons for being here and not be there anymore.
The exhibition is twofold. First, it reveals the social and material life of the squat at the approach of a critical event: its evacuation and demolition. It then shows the construction of an ethnographic survey, the conceptual and methodological toolbox that allow the study and understanding of life course: temporality of events, cumulative disadvantages, agency of resources, etc.
The exhibition is also double in the sense that two looks are complementary: the careful observation of a researcher meets the artistic vision of the other. Details and impressions that capture a same reality: exclusion.
From June 15 to 29, 2012
Central hall of Uni Mail, Bd du Pont d'Arve 40
Coordination of scientific work Nasser Tafferant
Exhibition design Nasser Tafferant, Emmanuelle Marendaz Colle, Raùl Burgos Paredes, Laura Bernardi, Hugues Siegenthaler
Photographs and texts Nasser Tafferant, Raùl Burgos Paredes
Scientific counselling Laura Bernardi
Photo counselling Hugues Siegenthaler
Graphics Fabrice Ducrest
Communication Emmanuelle.MarendazColle@unil.ch