Le Plaza - Plan Coupe

 Kinetic Bodies, an exclusive project by Plaza Foundation at Art Genève

Videos and film excerpts by: Alexandra Bachzetsis, Xavier Dolan, Tracey Emin, Jean Genet, Luca Guadagnino, Fritz Lang, Enad Marouf, Adrian Piper, Luiz Roque et Richard Wenk
Curator :  Elise Lammer
Scenographic design:  BUREAU (Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, Galliane Zamarbide)
Place and dates:
 January 30 – February 2, 2025, Palexpo, Geneva

The Plaza Foundation is delighted to announce its participation in the art fair, Art Genève, Salon d’Art, that will take place from January 30 to February 2, 2025. Marking a significant milestone as it presents its first off-site project, ahead of the highly anticipated opening of the Plaza Centre Cinema in 2026, Kinetic Bodies uses the scenographic design to show the selection of the curator Elise Lammer.

At the invitation of Art Genève, the Plaza Foundation will present Kinetic Bodies, a temporary cinema space created specifically for the international art fair.This immersive installation invites the audience to explore questions of identity through dance and desire, creating a unique dialogue between video art, cinema, and contemporary scenography.

Reflecting on Dance as a Universal Language

Curated by Elise Lammer with contributions from the architecture studio BUREAU (Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, Galliane Zamarbide), Kinetic Bodies features a selection of works from video art and cinema. The project examines dance as a bodily language that defies and transcends spoken words. As a catalyst for repressed identities and an expression of desire and sexuality, dance here becomes a tool for emancipation, breaking taboos and rewriting established norms.

Through Kinetic Bodies, the human form and the screen engage in a dialogue, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality. The body is as much the focus as the screen, which becomes an extension of it. This “inframince” – the delicate space between fiction and reality – alternately reveals and conceals intimacy embodied in movement. Onstage and in the imagination, the self is torn apart and transcended, opening the door to the possibility of absolute emancipation.

Structure arrondie avec surface en bois clair ondulé et rideau d'entrée bleu électrique pour un cinéma intimiste     photo de l'intérieur de l'installation Plaza on Tour, crédit: Régis GolayVue de Outside and inside view of the structure “Plaza on Tour” conceived by BUREAU, credits Régis Golay (Federal studio)

A Reimagined Architecture for Cinema

The project proposed by BUREAU draws inspiration from Marc J. Saugey’s fascination with American industrial architecture. Saugey, the architect behind the Plaza Cinema and Mont-Blanc Centre complex, admired the functional design of structures like the “Quonset Huts”—semi-cylindrical shelters developed in the 1940s to temporarily house military populations worldwide. After the war, this concept was adapted to accommodate or entertain working-class communities in industrial sites or suburban areas.

In this project, the structure undergoes a transformation, its materiality shifting from corrugated metal to wood. This change blurs its identity, making it ambiguous: is it a model, a set, a shelter, an artifact, or a habitat? The construction becomes a hybrid figure, oscillating between reality and illusion.

A Bold Cinematic Program

Kinetic Bodies, a one-hour continuous loop, offers an eclectic selection of videos and film excerpts by artists and filmmakers such as Alexandra Bachzetsis, Xavier Dolan, Tracey Emin, Jean Genet, Luca Guadagnino, Fritz Lang, Enad Marouf, Adrian Piper, Luiz Roque and Richard Wenk. The pop-up cinema, set up in the entrance area of the salon, reflects the Plaza Foundation’s commitment to fostering a dialogue between cinema and contemporary arts.

La curatrice Elise Lammer et l'architecte Daniel Zamarbide à l'entrée de l'installation Corps CInétiques à Art Genève 2025 (crédit: Nicolas Lieber)
Curator Elise Lammer and architect Daniel Zamarbide from BUREAU at 2025 Art Genève fair, credits Nicolas Lieber

Elise Lammer
Elise Lammer, a Swiss art curator, explores the intersections between public and domestic spaces in shaping identities. A doctoral candidate at the Art Gender Nature Institute in Basel and the University of Linz in Austria, her research focuses on the garden of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942–1994). She has contributed to numerous projects in Switzerland and internationally, collaborating with institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler (Riehen), Gulbenkian Museum (Lisbon), mumok (Vienna), and the Centre Culturel Suisse (Paris); MAMCO, Genève; Kunsthaus Glarus; Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Rome; Goethe Institut Beijing.

Daniel Zamarbide / BUREAU
BUREAU is the project of Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta and Galliane Zamarbide. The practice hides under its generic name a variety of research activities. BUREAU acts as an urge to react and participate to the surrounding physical, cultural and social environment with a critical standpoint and an immersive attitude. BUREAU is a furniture series, an editorial project, a design and architecture team.
Website: https://bureau.ac

Photo: Grace Jones in 1986 comedy horror movie “Vamp”, directed by Richard Wenk and co-written with Donald P. Borchers © Donald P. Borchers / Courtesy of Donald P. Borchers: https://youtube.com/c/DonaldPBorchersOG