DivengenX
DivergenX, London/ Geneva
DivergenX is a nomadic curatorial program intended to develop into a permanent space in Geneva (Switzerland) in the medium term. It operates as a platform that represents and supports artists considered “divergent.” It positions itself between an emerging gallery, an independent space, and a cultural-activist café. The aim is to show works that evoke a clear or suggestive rupture between the artists and a capitalist, patriarchal, ableist, and destructive system. In short, DivergenX is a:
“Nomadic curatorial project
Home for “divergent” minds
A space for gathering, working, and discussion
Where
Nothing is too much
Everything is enough
Nothing is ever normal
Because
I am
They are
We are
DivergenX”
Proposal
The exhibition brings two artists together, Anja Ripoll & Jeanne Tara. Its title, Burn Down The House, refers to a kind of pun or reversal of social injunctions. It can be understood as a reaction to constraint, an invitation to overturn established norms and wipe the slate clean. It evokes the kind of encouragement one might wish for an artist before embarking on a major project. Finally, it suggests the possibility of a paradigm shift in relation to consumption, globalisation, and our approach to climate issues.
Anja Ripoll
Anja Ripoll (*1995, CH/ES/IT) dedicates a tremendous amount of her time to the studio. Through her sculptural practice, the medium of ceramics is explored to its very limits. In rejecting normative systems, the artist brings forth phantasmagorical worlds, playing with fundamental contrasts. These question the margins within dominant realities: rebirth before death, the fall preceding the ascent, order within chaos—or its opposite.
The machine accelerates—like globalised growth itself. In an intello-artificial world, the contours of these techno-organic sculptures glow red. To borrow Donna Haraway’s expression, tentacular figures pass through our bodies, unsettling our emotions and disordering our thoughts. The twenty-first century is made of contradictions. The artist’s work is made of contrasts. Human or otherwise, attraction and rejection, living or vanished, fascination and discomfort—everything becomes its own opposite, fired at more than a thousand degrees within the same kiln in full dissolution. Upon the smoking ruins of global phallocratic capitalism, a few resilient insects still wander. And there, finally, stand Anja’s works: solid, sharp, and burning.
Her work has been shown in solo/duo exhibitions at Zabriskie Point, Geneva, CH; Soloshow, online (2023). She has been nominated for several awards, including the City of Geneva Grants, Centre d’Art Contemporain au Commun, Geneva, CH (2025); the International Ceramics Competition, Musée de Carouge, CH (2024); and the Young Contemporary Ceramics Competition, Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, FR (2023). She is the recipient of a residency grant from the Bruckner Foundation, Geneva, CH (2022). Her works have been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Royal College of Art, London, UK; DivergenX, Geneva, CH (2026); Museo Vincenzo Vela, Ligornetto, CH; Spielact Festival, Geneva, CH (2025); gr_und, Berlin, DE; Metamorphika, London, UK; Espace Dukat, Geneva, CH (2024); Sic! Elephant House, Lucerne, CH; and Candy Snake, Milan, IT (2023)
Jeanne Tara
Jeanne Tara (*1994, CH/FR) is a multidisciplinary artist using sculpture, painting, video and installation. Through these different media combined, they lead a sensitive reflection nourished by notions of gesture and transmission.
Taking as a starting point their subjective experience of the urban environment, they explore architectural manifestations as symbols of power and authority scattered throughout public space, and examine how the network of signs they constitute conditions our experiences and realities, becoming a possible source of division.
Jeanne Tara probes how hegemonic culture acts, not only through language, but also through forms and aesthetics. In their work, they oppose dominant discourses and subversive narratives, in order to question our cultural and social commonalities.
Born in Ambilly (France), Jeanne Tara trained in classical and contemporary dance before turning to visual arts. They studied at HEAD Geneva and then at ERG Brussels, where they obtained a Master degree in art practices. Recent residencies: Swiss Institute, New-York, US (2026); Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, FR (2025); RITA, Turbigo, IT (2023); Musée des Beaux Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH (2020). Recent solo exhibitions: DBKAPADDOCK, Brussels, BE (2025); UNA Galleria, Piacenza, IT (2024); Andata.Ritorno, Geneva, CH (2023); Halle Nord, Geneva, CH (2021). Recent group exhibitions: Museo Casa Rusca, Locarno, CH; Spielact, Le Commun, Geneva, CH (2025); Lange + Pult, Zurich, CH; Art en Chapelles, Haut-Doubs, FR (2024); Publica Espacio, San Juan, PR (2023); Villa Bernasconi, Geneva, CH (2022); Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, CH (2020); Jungkunst, Winterthur, CH (2019). Awards and nominations: Grants from the City of Geneva, CH (2025/2020); Kiefer Hablitzel Prize, Swiss Art Award, Basel, CH (2023); Caran d’Ache Prize, Geneva, CH (2015).
