Arts at Geneva Peace Week 2025

In collaboration with Satellites of Art, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform is proud to host Colombian artist, filmmaker, and journalist Erika González at Geneva Peace Week 2025.

Deeply committed to women's rights and social justice, Erika uses the medium of collage as a powerful visual and political tool to interrogate gender inequality, extractivism, colonization, and the commodification of bodies and territories. Her series “Déchirures” and other works explore the fractures, both visible and hidden, within our societies, blending the intuitive with the rational, the personal with the political.

Erika’s experience as a human rights advocate, her years of campaigning for the abolition of prostitution with the Belgian organization isala, and her leadership within the GRUPO SUR and EU-LAT networks inform a body of work that challenges power asymmetries and amplifies the voices of women defenders around the world.

In 2022, her award-winning documentary The Illusion of Abundance brought international attention to the struggles of women protecting land and life in Latin America. Her visual art continues this trajectory, evoking resistance, rupture, and resilience.

This exhibition invites audiences to reflect on the intersections of art, activism, and peacebuilding, highlighting how creative expression can serve as both testimony and transformation.

• The exhibition will be open from Tuesday to Thursday on the 4th floor of the GCSP. 
• Don’t miss the guided tours with the artist offered throughout the three days: details can be found in the programme.
• Follow Erika’s work: @minotauracollage

Echoes of Reality is a moving tribute by Mexican artist Álvaro Sebastián Quiroz Bolaños, a collection of 10 mixed-media portraits honoring activists who lost their lives fighting for justice, equity, and human rights across the globe.

Each portrait is more than just a face. It is a testimony: to their mission, their courage, and the ultimate price they paid for defending the most vulnerable. These works serve not only to ensure these individuals are not forgotten, but also to highlight the profound weight of their activism, their life’s purpose and the tragic consequence of standing up for what should be a collective cause, but is too often borne by a few.

The portraits are rendered on black nylon fabric taken from body bags , a haunting and symbolic choice that reflects the brutal finality of their sacrifice. This material is both literal and metaphorical: the body bag as a container of loss, and the black canvas as a space for memory, resistance, and truth.

The presentation is deliberately minimal, evoking the style of protest posters. This simplicity underscores the raw realities of activism: the silencing of voices, the fragility of life when it challenges entrenched power, and the tragic ease with which those seeking justice are branded threats, often with unresolved consequences.

• The exhibition will be open from Tuesday to Thursday at the FAB, Pétale 2. 
• Don’t miss the guided tours with the artist offered throughout the three days: details can be found in the programme.

As part of Geneva Peace Week 2025, Guila Clara Kessous, UNESCO Artist for Peace, actress, and theatre director, will lead an artistic residency exploring the transformative power of theatre in advancing human rights. Through interactive workshops, performances, and creative exchanges, participants will be invited to engage with pressing peace-related themes, including diplomatic reflection, individual freedom, acceptance of others, women’s rights, the plight of refugees, and the Theatre of the Oppressed method pioneered by Augusto Boal.

The residency aims to:

- Provide a space for dialogue and reflection on human rights through theatrical art

- Raise awareness and engage participants with contemporary human rights challenges via creative expression

- Offer an immersive and innovative approach to fostering social transformation through art

- Strengthen the artistic community in support of peace and highlight the role of art as essential to both inner and collective peace

• Theatre workshops will be held from Tuesday to Thursday at the Villa Rigot. 

• Full details on each workshop can be found in the programme.

As part of the PeaceTalks: Geneva Peace Week Edition, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform is honoured to host the Ashoka Group of Schools from India, for a traditional Indian dance performance.

Rooted in India’s rich artistic heritage, the Ashoka Group of Schools integrates cultural expression into its holistic approach to education. Through their After-School Academy and annual cultural programmes, students are encouraged to explore the depth of Indian classical and folk traditions while cultivating discipline, creativity, and a spirit of community. Dance becomes not only a celebration of culture but also a practice of harmony and resilience.

The Ashoka Group of Schools has long embraced the power of performance to connect people. From Ganesh Utsav festivities to school-wide celebrations of unity and diversity, their cultural showcases reflect the values of respect, empathy, and collective joy. For students, these experiences serve as both personal growth and shared testimony — affirming how art can foster belonging and peace across generations.

By bringing this performance to Geneva Peace Week, the Ashoka students embody the theme of Peace in Action, offering audiences a moving reminder that traditions carried forward with pride and creativity can bridge cultures and inspire solidarity.

• The dance performance will be held on Wednesday 15 October during the PeaceTalks in room Ivan Pictet
• Don't miss this performance and find out more in the programme.

Hailing from South Africa, the Isandi Wizards are a vibrant collective led by producer, DJ, and saxophonist Simbad, an artist whose collaborations span Cuban jazz, dubstep, deep house, afrobeat, techno, and beyond. The ensemble features rising talents such as vocalist Asemahle Tsholoba and pianist Brathew Van Schalkwyk, bringing fresh energy and vision to the project.

Their sound is deeply rooted in spiritual jazz, drawing inspiration from masters like Pharoah Sanders, Bheki Mseleku, Winston Mankuku, and Doug & Jean Carn, while carving out a voice that is distinctly their own.

• The music performance will be held on Monday 13 October during the Opening Ceremony in room Ivan Pictet
• Don't miss this performance and find out more in the programme.

Victoria Krueger is an International Junior Consultant with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), focusing on Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) as well as Stabilization. Based at UNDP Headquarters in New York, she works closely with Glaucia Boyer, UNDP’s Global Advisor on DDR and Stabilisation, contributing to global policy guidance, country-level support, programme development, training and advocacy. She pursued graduate studies at the Graduate Institute Geneva in the Master’s in International Development programme (MINT).

• This Multi-Media Exhibition will be held from Tuesday to Thursday at the GCSP 4th floor (pétale 4)

• Full details on each exhibition can be found in the programme.