Swiss artist John M Armleder has launched "Observatoires," the sixth edition of the Carte Blanche initiative at the Musée d’art et d’histoire (MAH) in Geneva. The exhibition reframes the museum’s historic collection through thematic rooms exploring animals, abstraction, and musical instruments, with playful interventions such as an oversized disco ball and graphic lobster wallpaper. Newly commissioned temporary structures inspired by Armleder’s own drawings in the museum’s collection further blur boundaries between contemporary art and cultural heritage.
This project matters because it positions a living artist as curator of a major institutional collection, turning the traditional artist-museum relationship inward. Armleder, a co-founder of the Ecart Group and a Geneva native with over 500 works in MAH’s collection, uses the initiative to examine the role of the artist in shaping institutional identity. The exhibition offers visitors an open-ended, self-guided experience that challenges didactic museum conventions and highlights the ongoing dialogue between contemporary practice and historical art.