Bâtiment d’Art Contemporain
28, rue des Bains
CH – 1205 Genève
Closed until May 16, 2025
Bus 1 — stop Ecole-de-Médecine
Tram 12, 13, 15 — stop Plainpalais
Closest parking: Plainpalais
The CPG is accessible to people with reduced mobility. A bell is available at the entrance of the building, rue des Bains 28, for any request for assistance. For the visually impaired, the texts of the exhibitions are available at the reception desk in large print with improved contrast. For people who are sensitive to noise and their environment, it is possible to visit the exhibition outside of visiting hours on request (closed until May 16, 2025). Please do not hesitate to contact the CPG team if you have any questions about accessibility.
Reduced price 3 CHF
AVS, AI, students, apprentices, artists, 20 ans/20 francs card and groups from 10 people
Free admission
Under 18; journalists, ICOM members, students in the fields of art, photography, design and art history.
Administration: Marco Dos Santos Oliveira and Sabine Ray
Coordination and communication: Claus Gunti
Technique: Vanessa Bianchini and Christophe Turchi
Art education: Léonie Marion
Front of house: Murat Aysan, Pape Diop, Nicola Mastrangelo, Jean-Marc Wettach
The Centre de la photographie Genève (CPG) defines itself as a research laboratory for new ways of presenting and thinking about photography today in an institutional context.
The CPG was founded in 1984 by 11 photographers aiming to defend photography as one of the fine arts. With Joerg Bader as its director, the CPG developed between 2001 and 2021 an interest in all types of modes of production, dissemination and presentation of photography while organising conferences, symposiums and publications. This new position was developed with the ‘documentary style’ and visual culture in constant exchange with the other arts as a guiding principle. It was based on the assumption that, after the historical avant-gardes and neo-avant-gardes had taken over photography, and that it had become an integral part of contemporary art, the question had shifted. After an important work of historicization and theorization on all photographic practices, vernacular photography was brought to the forefront. With the massification of photography under the impulse of digital technology, the functioning of our commercial societies is no longer conceivable without photography. This situation guided the CPG’s programme during this period.
In 2007, the CPG founded its own publishing house, Éditions Centre de la photographie Genève, which has been distributed since 2014 by Les Presses du réel. In the same year, it moved to the Bâtiment d’art contemporain (BAC) where the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Mamco) and the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (CAC) are currently located. From 2003 to 2019, the CPG organised the triennial photography event 50JPG (50 Jours pour la photographie à Genève), usually in collaboration with other art venues in and around Geneva.
Since 2022, under the direction of Danaé Panchaud, the CPG has developed a new approach, which presents some affinities with the line of the last two decades. Its programme defends the emancipatory potential of photography, particularly as a means for self-expression and for reclaiming and writing one’s own history. It investigates the power dynamics running through images, deconstructing and reappropriating them. Finally, it invests the photographic image as a means of investigation of the world and as a tool for the constitution of knowledge.
In parallel to its exhibition programme, the CPG has been developing an art education programme for schools, professional artists and photographers, and adults since autumn 2022. The programme for schools aims to explore the various issues related to images in society and to promote visual and digital literacy. The programme of workshops, talks and mentorship for artists are intended to support their practice through several formats accompanying the development of their projects. Finally, the thematic events proposed to the adult public allow for the exploration of multiple questions related to the role of photography in society.
Thierry Dana
Stéphanie Barbey
Renaud de Planta
Guillaume de Sardes
Pauline Gygax
Aurélie Pétrel
Nathalie Rodach
Sylvie Vautier Picasso