Exhibition in Geneva: Ariana thanks its donors and patrons

He probably doesn’t have “Thirty million friends”, like the animals on television. However, Geneva’s Ariana has a lot of them. There are the officials, grouped since 2010 (date when the institution gained autonomy in a postcolonial world) under the acronym AAA (1). Plus others who are patrons, donors or testators. This is a lot of people for a museum that really needs it. Since 1994 (thirty years ago), the City has no longer granted him any purchase credits. She remains far too poor for that, as we all know. At the price of the useless hole dug in the city of Geneva, it is unfortunately in the wallet that the latter becomes most obvious. Think about the debt! Think of us children! Think about the retirement fund of our civil servants, even if they do not always work!

Between gift and liquidation

This preamble seemed necessary to me to announce the new Ariana exhibition, simmered over very low heat by Isabelle Naef Galuba. The thing is called: “Donating, a matter of the heart or of the mind”? For the director, it was a matter of sorting things out by following the passage of time. Why this largesse? Where do they come from? What can they be accidental or, on the contrary, calculated? In my opinion, there is a world of difference between the bulky inheritance that ends up at Ariana (to the extent that mom and dad cannot decently end up at the Flea Market) and the desire of an amateur selecting a very specific piece to fill a gap in collections born from the legacy of Gustave Revilliod in 1890. Two extreme cases between which come middle solutions, which all reveal themselves to be different. The charm of collectors remains that they are ultimately not alike.

In order to demonstrate, Isabelle Naef Galuba had twelve display cases. Those which, piercing the wall, go around the gallery on the hall. We cannot say that these mini-spaces in the shape of suppositories constitute a success in terms of design. This is a legacy of the unfortunate interior remodeling of the Ariana in the 1990s. The very roundness of these capsules ends up limiting the choice of pieces, which must remain flat and narrow. This defect does not appear to be a problem here. For the director-turned-curator, it was less a question of showing specific works than of making them give a coherent message. In what way and according to what thoughts has generosity been exercised for more than a century? And especially for around forty years. The demonstration very much resembles thanks, it was indeed better that these were addressed to living people or at least those frequent visitors to the Ariana have known such. It’s elegant. Well-mannered. Fortunately, not all museums are supposed to behave like gougnafiers (2), even if many do. In terms of non-recognition, the MAH and the Geneva MEG do not have a very good reputation.

The route remains in principle chronological. It therefore starts from the Revilliod legacy in 1890, or at least from its glass and ceramic part since the pieces relating to ethnography or fine arts were withdrawn in 1934. This is the great historical collection. Then came isolated pieces or small sets. There will still have been some big ones afterwards. Died in 2008, Csaba Caspar, who was a discreet and charming gentleman, donated more than 2,300 contemporary ceramics to Ariana. The museum has already received part of Frank Nivergelt’s more ambitious modern ensemble. I also noticed with surprise, when reading the figure, that I had given 300 pieces to Ariana in small pieces over twenty years. The fruit of a few purchases and a lot of strolling through flea markets. Fruit that has been accepted, to the extent that Ariana does not accept everything. The terror of museums dedicated to ceramics remains the offer of enormous table services that no longer correspond to current social life. Pass again for a plate! But when there are sixty identical ones, it’s obviously not.

From window to window, the visitor discovers a society of Friends, which often remains indecisive and sluggish like Ariana. Some real patrons like Gisèle de Marignac were and Yolande Crowe-Vernes remains today. Two women of character, who themselves did not collect. There are also merchants, including Marianne Brand and Lionel Latham. Artists, whether or not they are part of the International Association of Ceramics (or AIC) founded in 1952, whose headquarters are located here. And finally anonymous people who handed over what came to them from their parents for various reasons. Some felt that these patiently collected objects had to “enter the family”. Others wanted to give them a semblance of eternity, which seems a long time to me. There were undoubtedly sometimes heartbreaks, about which the public will know nothing. How can we tolerate, for example, that the museum makes a choice from a set, which implies refusals? And what to do with the eliminated objects, reduced to a sort of nothingness?

That said, Ariana takes a lot. Its collections now total 28,000 items. These increases required a few years ago a new room upstairs, dedicated in a less dusty way than before to “study collections”. Five of its “boxes”, designed by decorator Patricia Abel, have just been renewed. They are currently used to explain the criteria according to which acceptances are made, more delicate for old pieces and especially excavations than for purchases made twenty years ago in a store. Like all Western museums, today in Geneva there is a lot of interest in provenance. Ariana does not question the honesty and good faith of the donors, but… The porcelain must show both white mark and white paste. I will reassure you right away. Some still take the entrance exam. Some Italian majolica from the 16th century proves it here.

A final word to finish. The current public can currently contribute to the purchase of an important piece missing from the collections. It’s the local version (smaller) of “All patrons” of the Louvre. The work in question is signed by Torbjørn Kvasbø, who is, as his name suggests, Scandinavian. Aged 70, the man is one of the leading European names in ceramics, which has a price on the market. I would have liked to see the photo of the work. But perhaps the institution wants to surprise us…. Or maybe I forgot to activate one of the many QRs placed along the walls. Like people my age. That said, it is still the seniors who remain Ariana’s business assets!

(1) Ariana Friends Association or AAA. Do not confuse with Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA.

(2) “Gougnafiers”, ill-learned, cad. I refer here to my dictionary.

Practical

“Making a donation, a matter of the heart or of the mind?”, Ariana Museum, 10, avenue de la Paix, Geneva, until March 2, 2025. Tel. 022 418 54 50, website https://musee-ariana-ch Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Free admission.

Born in 1948, Etienne Dumont studied in Geneva which were of little use to him. Latin, Greek, law. A failed lawyer, he turned to journalism. Most often in the cultural sections, he worked from March 1974 to May 2013 at the “Tribune de Genève”, starting by talking about cinema. Then came fine arts and books. Other than that, as you can see, nothing to report.More informations

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