What goes into the making of an exhibition? This question is the focus of the seminar that will start in the fall of 2025, organized by MAMCO and held at HEAD – Genève (the Geneva University of Art and Design). A full academic year of collaborative work between the museum’s team, the students and guest researcher Branden W. Joseph will culminate in a public exhibition based on the Ecart Archives—the legacy of the 1970s Geneva-based artist collective of the same name.

The Ecart Archives reveal the Mail Art networks that existed outside institutional circles, linking alternative scenes in the Western world. One such example is the Bay Area Dadaists—an array of artists from San Francisco who were inspired by the Dadaist spirit of contestation and fascination for absurdity. The fanzines, collages, and performances created by figures such as Anna Banana, Bill Gaglione and Monte Cazazza found resonance in other scenes—in Canada (Image Bank, General Idea) and the United Kingdom (Cosey Fanni Tutti, Genesis P-Orridge)—and laid the early foundations for a nascent American punk scene. Through printed documents, videos, and audio recordings, the exhibition will piece together a previously untold story: that of artists claiming their right to be insolent and questioning meaning, gender, authority, and institutions.

• The exhibition is curated by Branden W. Joseph (Frank Gallipoli Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Columbia University, New York), Elisabeth Jobin (curator at MAMCO) and HEAD – Genève students.