Quand les images prennent soin

Among the many forms and meanings that the relationship between care and image can take, the exhibition looks in particular at the intimate and universal issues of grief and mourning, family relationships and what is left unsaid, as well as the more community-based issues of visibility and representation, the reclaiming of one’s own history, and the activist image. It resolutely affirms the power of the photographic image as a means of empowerment and emancipation, as part of one’s agency over one’s own situation, identity, history and destiny.

The first part of the exhibition focuses on the construction of individual, intimate and family stories, often linked to grief, disappearance, secrecy, illness or disability. Here, care takes the form of narratives told through images, which contribute to making sense of experiences, in all their complexity, difficulty and sometimes brutality.

The second part of the exhibition is devoted primarily to collective narratives. It looks in particular at the notion of care through the visibility and representation of certain communities, and their links with forms of activism. Particular attention is paid to social and civic movements in Switzerland, notably against racism, homophobia and sexism, and to the militant dimension that images can take on in these contexts.