Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Forty-four of Canton Geneva’s 45 communes Sunday 17 April elected their town managers, leaving the Left firmly in power, in the city of Geneva but also in a majority of its neighbouring communes.
The city of Geneva elected four Socialists to its Executif: Sami Kanaan, noted for his closeness to outgoing magistrate Manuel Tornare, received the most votes, with a Socialist, Sandrine Salerno, a Green, Esther Alder and a member of Ensemble à gauche, Rémy Pagani just behind him.
Onex elected Eric Stauffer, the only commune to vote in a member of the MCG party. It made headlines in March 2011 when 11 MCG members were voted onto Geneva’s local parliament, but its abrasive approach left it without enough allies to put in a similar strong performance this weekend.
Elections in local media: Le Temps (registration), TDG, TSR
4th World Congress against death penalty in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Humour in the struggle against the death penalty is on display in a 50-piece exhibit at the University of Geneva’s Unimail campus from 2 February. The exhibit will move to the CICG conference centre 24 February to coincide with the opening of the 4th World Congress against the death penalty, 24-26 February. The Congress has the support of the Swiss government.
The cartoons display is sponsored by the French abolitionist group Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) and the City of Geneva. The display opens officially 4 February at 17:30 with a welcome by Rémy Pagani, mayor of Geneva.
Links to other sites: Abolition site, World Coalition site
Nogles, Arizona, March 2007 (© Chris Maluszynski/Agence Vu)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Pont de la Machine in the centre of Geneva, not far from the Mont Blanc bridge, will for the next three months offer visitors the irony of a bridge as a showcase for walls that divide humanity. “Murs”, an extraordinary exhibit of large-scale photos of barriers taken by some of the world’s top photographers, opened Monday 9 November in Geneva. The show continues to 31 January 2010. The collection of images of life on both sides of walls that were erected for political reasons are striking, particularly at night or in rainy weather when their backlighting makes them stand out from the stream of people crossing the bridge.
Pedestrians entering the footbridge from the left bank of the Rhone first see the building of the Berlin wall: the exhibit’s opening was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of its fall. Monday, before the official opening, saw a typical crowd of people crossing the bridge, some on their cell phones with thoughts elsewhere and others with their eyes on the ground, concentrating on getting from point A to point B. All were obliged to confront the artwork because the 12 lightboxes that hold 24 large format images (200cm wide) printed on tarmac are laid out in such a way that people have to zigzag across the bridge.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (20Minutes, Fre) – Free wifi access is coming to various communes surrounding Geneva, Switzerland, such as Vernier, but slowly and patchily, reports 20Minutes. The city of Geneva already has 156 access points at 73 locations around town.
And just in time for the picnic season, by years-end Geneva will be getting picnic tables in every city park , too, says Geneva’s mayor, Rémy Pagani, in a 20Minutes report. Read more…
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The official unveiling of a 60-metre long ceramic fresco, a wall mural by Swiss artist Hans Erni, takes place Saturday 6 June at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations building in Geneva. The public is invited to the 14:15 ceremony.
The artist, who celebrated his 100th birthday in February 2009, has been actively involved in the preparatory work for the mural. “I want all those people going in there to work every day to see it and think about peace,” he told a group of foreign journalists who recently visited him in his hometown of Lucerne. “I want them to be inspired.”
The mural covers what has been a plain concrete wall that was erected when security was tightened around the building after September 2001. Friday 5 June workers were busy putting finishing touches on the fresco as tents went up for the Saturday ceremony in front of the UN building. Some 1,000 people have been invited.
Geneva has had a long relationship with the artist, who has created artworks for several international organizations in the city.
The local government invited him to develop a project for his centenary and the fresco is the result. The city paid CHF150,000 of the total cost of CHF600,000, according to the Tribune de Geneve in early May, when work began to install the fresco.
The ceremony is the first official event presided over by the new mayor of Geneva, Rémy Pagani. The fresco, named Tu panta rei, was produced by François Ruegg with Sertam. The tiles are 50 cm x 1 metre and are placed on a curved surface, requiring special handling.
Related:
“Hans Erni named Swiss Personality of the Year by foreign correspondents,” GenevaLunch, 19 May 2009
“Portrait of the artist as an old man: Hans Erni at 100,” GenevaLunch, 7 June 2009
