The third edition of The Other Side aural space was exhibited in Cimetière des Rois (rue des Rois 10), Geneva, Switzerland in 2019.
The original, planned opening day was on Wednesday, June 19th 2019 at 5pm but a severe storm hit Geneva couple of days before and as a result, dozens or hundreds of trees and tree branches fell in all public parks of the city. Also the Cemetery of Kings was closed.
After Ville de Geneve had checked and secured all the trees within the cemetery it was opened again and the exhibition could be visited from July to October 2019. The exhibition was curated by Anna Barseghian, director of Utopiana collective as a part of a 1000 ecologies Biennal. Ulla was invited to develop the site-specific work in a Utopiana artist-in-residence from October 2018 until the opening.
The Cemetery of Kings is known as the site where distinguished influencers of the city of Geneva have been buried since hundreds of years including politicians, scientists, artists and other prominent figures such as Jorge Luis Borges and John Calvin, the protestant reformer from 16th century. The cemetery is the oldest in Geneva and was founded in 1482. It is used and loved by Genevans as a park and place for recovery after and during work days and also as a playing ground for local children.
The placement of the signs in this site was guided by monumental trees. Trees, like bees and angels, communicate between the Earth and the Heaven. Thus it was a remarkable coincidence fto ind many of these imposing trees injured and fallen as a consequence of the storm in the planned day of the opening.
Among the texts selected earlier to The Other Side Geneva one more was selected, written by Jorge Luis Borges. Authors of other texts are Virgil, Elias Lönnrot (FI), Maurice Maeterlinck (BE), Mercè Rododera (CAT), Svetlana Aleksievich (RU), Johanna Sinisalo (FI) and Jo Shapcott (UK). New recordings were made in French, and interpreted by Swiss actress Barbara Barker.
The Swiss edition of The Other Side was dedicated to the extraordinary naturalist François Huber, who was born in Geneva in 1750. In spite being blind, he made groundbreaking discoveries regarding the magical and mysterious life of the bee.
Photos of the photo gallery by Oceana Antonyan and Ulla Taipale.
the other side 