The first ever Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, as well as the 1864 Geneva Conventions are part of the permanent collection at the Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge / International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, an institution at the heart of the intersection between art and humanitarian action. The Museum opened its doors to the public on 29 October 1988, and Pascal Hufschmid has served as Director since 2019. Kristen Knupp of Art Vista Magazine spoke with Pascal Hufschmid on the opening of its first ever participatory artist in residence programme and at a moment of fiscal crisis for the Museum after the announcement in September 2024 that federal funding would be withdrawn. Topics discussed include the recent donation of The Peoples’ Wall, renovating the permanent exhibition, Future Memory – Tricycle from Hiroshima, and the importance of communicating the principles of humanitarianism through art. Art Vista also spoke with Iranian artist Zahrasadat Hakim, HEAD art school graduate and winner of the 10th Prix Art Humanité, about her residency at the Museum.

Kristen Knupp: I haven’t seen this stunning and colourful glass display before – could you explain how it came to the Museum?

Pascal Hufschmid: This is an incredible piece, and we have been extremely fortunate to receive it here at the Museum as a permanent donation. It is handmade, produced by two glass artists, Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin, who were commissioned in 2018 for an incredible exhibition that took place at Canterbury Cathedral to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. This is called The Peoples’ Wall and their perspective is to say that 100 years later, we live in a society that celebrates diversity where we can live together and where, specifically in the area of migration, we need to do everything to promote and to support togetherness. Our paths crossed with the artists seven weeks ago, and they were looking for a place to donate this piece, and it made perfect sense that it land here, at this museum, where we are focussed on the fundamental principles of humanitarian action, and how we can contribute to society and have a positive impact on those around us. It was installed recently and is an incredible work. It is one large glass vitrine where all the colourful handblown pieces have been carefully placed in relation to each other. 

This is the first piece of the new permanent exhibition. We are going to totally redesign the permanent exhibition without closing the Museum, in collaboration with our audience. We are aiming to have it completed by 2028 which will be the 40th anniversary of the museum, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant. When you enter we will have a wall showing the breadth and complexity of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, and how each country and organisation fits together. In conversation with this visualization, the Peoples’ Wall will be a statement about respecting dignity and different expressions of identity, and how we can all live together. 

During the renovation, we plan to be extremely respectful of the building and will work in a sustainable manner and keep everything we can. There is going to be a meeting point in the center at a round agora, a place where people can sit, be comfortable, and have conversations together. This is where the exhibition will begin and end, and will focus on international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. We will give much more importance to objects. We have an incredible collection of 30,000 objects and we want to show them to the public. We will focus on the history of the  Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, what the job of a humanitarian worker is, alongside the volunteers, families, affected people, the media, the public and how all these actors interact within humanitarian situations. We will also look into the future, and how we can adapt to all the big questions that are approaching us as a society. There will be a constant movement and shifting of the exhibitions in a sustainable way, with our audiences participating, and continuing to respond to the changing landscape of humanitarianism. 

KK: Will this approach require a lot of management of the exhibitions as they evolve?

PH: It is a huge challenge, I have never seen it done elsewhere. But I so strongly believe that the process is just as important as the outcome, and I believe that a museum has to be a place where everyone feels legitimate and welcome to interact with the content. We are a forum where people from all walks of life, humanitarian workers and museum professionals can build something together other than a temple of truth on top of a hill. This just doesn’t exist. 

KK: Could you talk about the temporary exhibition, Tuning In: Acoustique de l’émotion? I read that it focuses on the audio collections of the Museum. How extensive are they?

PH: This is our interdisciplinary and collaborative temporary exhibition that asks the question: if you close your eyes and think of humanitarian action, what do you hear? Who speaks? Who has a voice, who doesn’t have a voice, and who is not speaking? What does it mean when you are a humanitarian worker and therefore, impartial, to listen to everybody? All these questions were the starting point. As always, our first point of reference was our collection, and we found a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of hours of recordings. We give an overview of these sound collections (speeches, digitised material, music, sound clips, etc.) and also present objects connected to sound such as photographs of performances, musical instruments, and posters, among other items. They start to open up the spectrum to connect sound and music to questions of mental health, resilience, and celebration. 

KK: Is this the first time the Museum has focused on this aspect of the collection?

PH: It is the first time it has been researched. We take huge pride and pleasure to share this with students and we have teamed up with four different universities and art schools and they carried out the research. A group of Master’s students in Affective Sciences studied how to identify emotions in someone’s voice, and what it means to listen to a testimony. During their research, Art and Design students found a box in the archives that said “Don’t Keep. Just Music.” So they questioned why a collection would not keep music, challengin assumptions about what matters or not. We also have the wall of images of pop stars who have made music to raise money for causes in Africa such as the 1984 “Feed the World” campaign. In response, the University of Norway created a satirical video in which people in Africa sing a song to raise money in order to send radiators to Norway to save people from the cold.  After having seen this very funny video, we suddenly understand that Western fundraising initiatives with pop singers, although full of good intentions, are also and so often the expression of the white saviour syndrome or lack a clear understanding of the situation on the ground. It is a critical perspective, which is one we never shy away from as a museum. 

Then we move to another part of the exhibition with contemporary artworks created specially for this exhibition. Major artists like South African William Kentridge created a piece about a museum in South Africa which was created with money from mining. It includes an animated film and asks an interesting question: how to listen to every voice, including the voice of the mining community whose rights were disrespected. 

KK: This exhibition must have been a huge amount of work in terms of research and curating.  

PH: It was four years of work. We learned so much and my colleague Elisa Rusca, who is the curator, did an incredible job. The step we took to invite contemporary artists in residency was a very inspired one. Dana Whabira is from Zimbabwe, and she went into the ICRC archives where she wanted to search for the keyword “love”. She was told that “love” is not a keyword. That moment sparked a long reflection and she met with the philosopher and author Suzana Sousa from Angola and here in the exhibition we have a recording of their conversation. They speak about the concept of Ubuntu, our vulnerabilities, and how taking care of each other on a personal and collective level is just as important as the work of big humanitarian organisations. 

KK: How has this exhibition been received?

PH: It has been really successful. We see this in the attendance numbers and it is one of our most successful exhibitions to date. We are also really proud that people from many different communities have connected with the theme. For example, last week we had a guided tour in sign language. 

In addition, we have redesigned the ground floor, and this has changed everything. We asked people what they needed and we received 9,000 post-it notes with ideas that we analysed. We acted on actual needs expressed by the community, and conducted the work based on a circular economy, meaning that we re-used materials that we had at the Museum, and rebuilt existing structures to new purposes. There was a wooden wall from a conference room that became a bar and furniture, for example. If we could not find something at the Museum we found it second-hand in a radius of 30 kilometres. Our approach also served to empower local businesses. As a museum that talk about humanitarian action, it was essential that we applied to ourselves the humanitarian principle of “do no harm”.

I also want to point out Future Memory – Tricycle which is the only facsimile in the world of the original tricycle from The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came here to the Museum to honour its donation to the Museum by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons(ICAN) and the City of Geneva. Shinichi Tetsutani, the little boy who owned the tricycle, died the day of the bombing, and his parents buried him in their garden with his beloved toy. 40 years later, they took care of their son’s remains and gave the original tricycle to the Peace Museum in Hiroshima. A few years ago, two artists, Akira Fujimoto and Cannon Hersey, scanned the original tricycle and had an exact copy cast in bronze. This is the sculpture now on view at the Museum entrance,  a busy space near the restaurant so that the maximum number of people can interact with it and learn from it. When visiting the museum in September, the family of Shinichi Tetsutani  said the atomic bomb destroyed many things but it did not destroy their love for their ancestor. 

KK: That is so moving and it is in the perfect location. If I can move on to another topic, what has interested the Museum in creating the first artist’s participatory residency programme where you have asked Zahrasadat Hakim, winner of the Prix Art Humanité to create a tapestry in collaboration with museum visitors? How will the residency program develop in the future?

PH: First of all, there is a key aspect of my vision for the Museum which is that artists help us to understand the world in which we live. They are essential partners in the conversation that we want to create with humanitarian workers and everyone who comes to the Museum, and they help us to connect with the complexity of humanitarian issues. We want to take a step further and say that if Geneva is the world capital of humanitarian affairs, and it is, what does it mean to be an artist in this city? There was an opportunity that arose to propose to the existing Prix Art Humanité that our concept of a residency become the big prize for this award. This means that we not only show that art is a way of approaching humanitarian issues, but it is also a way for artists to play a key role in the heart of international Geneva. It also shows what being an artist means, the craft and the skill involved. On another level, it is a huge opportunity for the artist’s career development, and for us, it is an opportunity for people to be part of the act of creating. People from all walks of life can connect and share a collective moment.

During six months, the artist has a budget and monthly financial support for the work she is doing. After that we will exhibit the tapestry that has been made, and will then acquire the artwork for our collections, so it is a huge commitment for us. Every year there is a new call for applications and the process continues. Our partners are the HEAD art school, the AHEAD foundation, the ICRC and its foundation, and the Geneva Red Cross. We are also supported by the SKKG Foundation which is very brave and innovative in the support they give to projects in the cultural field.

KK: I have read in the press about the funding problems with the Museum and I would like to hear about how you are addressing that issue?

PH: We are currently in the distressing situation which was triggered by the decision of the Federal Council to ask for a series of cost-cutting measures to save money on the federal level to fund the Swiss army. These measures were published in September and to our great surprise, not having been informed or consulted, we were included in the cost-cutting measures. We are talking about 1.1 million francs which the Museum has been receiving since 1991, every year, and it is the contribution of the federal government to the Museum. The total annual budget of the Museum is 4.5 to 4.6 million francs, so this is 1/4 of our annual budget. Half of the budget is secured by subsidies from the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the federal level, the Canton of Geneva, the ICRC and the IFRC. The rest is secured from other sources such as ticketing and fundraising. 

The Federal Council decided to move us from the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Swiss Ministry of Culture. This means that now we need to compete for museum subsidies every four years, and we are therefore facing a triple threat. Firstly, it is a competition so we don’t know if we win, secondly, we can only win 300,000 francs a year, and thirdly, we don’t know if we can win it again. We are therefore contemplating an annual 800,000 francs loss starting in 2027. This pushes us into a structural deficit which will lead to our closure. A structural deficit means that we can not absorb the losses even if we are more efficient or do less Every year, we invest 500,000 francs into content production. Even if we stopped, we would still be 300,000 francs short. We are a private museum and we take care of a collection of national and international importance. I say that, but also the Swiss Federal Heritage Protection Plan states the same thing. This represents for us an annual investment of another 500,000 francs. If we stop that, we still don’t have enough money and we put the collection is at risk. The museum has 4,000 square meters of museum space and welcomes 120,000 people a year with only 14 full-time positions. My team are extremely talented and efficient and I refuse to make it even smaller. We couldn’t operate. For these reasons, we think the decision to cut 1/4 of our budget was done in an administrative way without the awareness of the consequences, which are clearly asymmetrical on our activity.

We went public with this financial situation because this museum not only safeguards the backbone of humanitarian heritage in Switzerland, but also does a daily job that is in sync with the Federal government’s commitments to international humanitarian law. We exhibit the Geneva Conventions, we have the first Nobel Peace Prize ever given to Henry Dunant, we welcome visitors from Switzerland and all over the world, we address humanitarian principles and challenges with 25 000 young people per year on average, so it is difficult for us to understand this decision. Furthermore, every month we welcome, on average, two official delegations including high-ranking diplomats, Presidents and others who recognise the Museum as a symbol of Switzerland as the depository state of the Geneva Conventions. Why would the Federal government choose to disengage from such a useful tool? This museum is part of the DNA of Switzerland. 

We were very fortunate to have support from elected members of parliament in Geneva and Bern. In Geneva, there was a parliamentary motion that was presented and accepted by all political parties to save the Museum. In Bern, at the federal level, there was a similar motion signed by 76 members of parliament from all regions of Switzerland. There is a strong political will to keep the Museum alive and thriving and I feel strong support to resolve the situation. I hope this will lead to a sustainable and robust solution. Until then, we are going full steam ahead with our plans for our temporary exhibitions and the renovation of our permanent exhibition, in respect of our partners. We will not give up, that is impossible in my mind and in my team’s mind. 

The Museum has announced its first ever participatory artist in residence programme following the ceremony of the 10th Prix Art Humanité on 23rd January 2025, when Zahrasadat Hakim was announced as the winner. She began her residency at the Museum on 4 March 2025. Art Vista spoke to Zahrasadat Hakim on the opening of the residency.

Kristen Knupp: I understand this is the first artist’s residency at the Museum — and congratulations on winning the Prix Art Humanité! What was the process like to be chosen for the residency?

Zahrasadat Hakim: I received a nomination for the Prix Art Humanité from HEAD. They sent a nomination for student artists who had both recently graduated. I made a proposal and presented my work and then went through two rounds of presentations. 

KK: What is your project here at the Museum about?

ZH: They asked us how humanitarian action is important for the here and now. For me, it is always a question of what we can do as individuals, not as an organisation or institution, but just as normal people. For me, the answer is that we start with our small circle around us, family and friends, and we take a small action. It could be to pay attention to someone’s feelings, or take care of a plant, and each circle will influence another one, and become bigger and bigger. It comes from something inside each one of us and then it expands and affects people on a larger scale and we make a change in the world. When we think of the word “humanitarian” we think of wars, and catastrophes, but I was inspired for this project by imagining that small and simple actions can eventually affect people on a larger scale. 

I also grew up in a city in Iran that is famous for silk carpets, so this is something I love. This inspired me to propose to make a tapestry with the participation of the museum visitors using simple gestures of weaving thread on a loom. At the end we will have a large tapestry that we have created together from actions we have done together. In terms of colour, I thought about using blue like the sky, and a brownish, terra cotta colour like the earth. I will create the vertical threads, and the public will weave the colours into the tapestry. I am just starting on the vertical threads now. I made the loom myself, and the trams (shuttles) using wood turning. They are made out of walnut and pear wood. It was very satisfying because it was my first experience doing woodturning. I like the shape of the shuttles because it reminds me of trees, especially the cypress tree. In Iranian tradition the cypress is the symbol of life and freedom.

KK: Is the video part of your work as well?

ZH: Yes, this is a video I made in 2022 for my first solo exhibition. It is me planting 100 tulip bulbs and we just see my hands in the soil, digging holes for the tulips. We also see the passing of time, as I started before sunrise, and it took me all day and then we see the sunset, so we feel the passing of time, day and night, and how things continue. The garden was at the Cherish Gallery, in Geneva, which has now been demolished. I wanted to work in the garden, and I researched what would grow at that time of the year and found the tulip bulb. They need cold and dark and then in spring they bloom, and I like that. They need to pass some time in the dark to be able to flourish later. I like this concept. 

The beads that I am digging up from the earth were from a bracelet that I was wearing when we started filming. I am placing them on a woven piece that was inspired by Josef Albers. I had a dream a few days before filming about a necklace that broke and I saw two hands with something between them. While filming my bracelet broke, and this is the moment that I collect something from the earth. The rest of the film is about me putting something into the earth, so this is the opposite action. It is the dream coming true. 

KK: This seating area is also something that you created as part of the residency?

ZH: Part of my work is appropriating space and doing something positive for a space. I ask: what can we do to make our space better? At art school, everyone was saying the school should do things for us. I felt that we should do things for ourselves, without asking for someone to do it for us. Little by little, I added things to the common space like tea, candies, fruit, and plants, to make a nice environment for everyone. Here, I made a comfortable space, welcoming to people to feel different and better. I brought plants, sofas, a carpet. It is like when you move to a new home, and step by step you make something more comfortable. 

KK: Is it a tapestry you are making here?

ZH: Yes, I always choose a medium that I am not really comfortable with. Maybe I like it, but I don’t know how to do it as a specialist because I like to discover how to do things. For example, videos were also challenging because I had not done that before. Tapestries are also something new for me to learn how to do. It is good to try new things, and to remain curious like a child about learning, in a simple way, to create something new. 

Find out more about Zahrasadat Hakim, the artist in residence programme, and the exhibitions at Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent here.

Cover image: The People’s Wall, Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin, 2018. Photo credit: Zoé Aubry