Thinking ‘Art’ to Heal Wounds

Why Arts & Peace? - Background

We are living in a period of profound geopolitical rupture. Armed conflicts are multiplying and intensifying. Multilateral institutions face growing strain. Polarisation, fragmentation, and geopolitical rivalry are challenging established diplomatic processes.

At the same time, rapid technological and social transformation is reshaping how communities experience insecurity, identity, and belonging. In such moments of disruption, creation becomes essential: creativity is not a luxury, but a vital human response to rupture. Artistic expression opens non-discursive spaces where trauma can be acknowledged, imagination renewed, and shared humanity restored — often where political processes stall.

Geneva, as a global hub for peace, is uniquely positioned to explore the intersection of culture, creativity, arts, dialogue, and international policy. Initiatives such as the Caux Arts and Peace Encounters and discussions emerging from Geneva Peace Week demonstrate growing interest in integrating creative approaches to strengthen dialogue, imagination, and inclusive participation within multilateral settings.

About the event

This event forms part of a broader initiative culminating in the second edition of the Caux Arts and Peace Encounters (10–13 May 2026). 

Drawing on the experience of L’Art Blessé (“Wounded Art”), an exhibition organised in Beirut a few months after the 4 August 2020 port explosion, this event explores how damaged artworks can become powerful testimonies of trauma and resilience—echoing the Japanese art of kintsugi, where cracks are transformed into meaning.During this event,  essayist and cultural mediator and advisory member of Caux Arts and Peace Encounters, Michel Abou Khalil and Geneva-based physician, writer and gallerist Barbara Polla discuss how art can help societies “think” and “heal” collective wounds, and how creativity can support the capacity to live, rebuild and continue creating. This session will be moderated by journalist Luisa Ballin.

SPEAKERS & MODERATOR

MICHEL ABOU KHALIL (Lebanon/ Switzerland), PhD, Director of Swiss Made Culture   I   Speaker

Michel Abou Khalil graduated from the Lebanese University with a BA and MA in Drama, and went on to become a well-known actor in his country. He obtained a doctorate in French literature at the Arab University of Beirut and worked as a cultural attaché at the Swiss Embassy in Lebanon. He currently heads the SWISS MADE CULTURE association, which celebrates Swiss culture in dialogue with the world.

BARBARA POLLA (Switzerland), Physician, Writer &  Gallerist    I   Speaker

Barbara Polla is a medical doctor who graduated from the University of Geneva (1982) and received her Habilitation (HDR) from Paris Descartes University in 1994. A Harvard Fellow, visiting professor at the University of Modena, and consultant to Japan’s Ministry of Education and Research on stress proteins, she also served as Research Director at INSERM from 1993 to 2000. She has authored around one hundred scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. Alongside her scientific career, Polla—mother of four daughters—was active in politics from 1991 to 2003, including four years as a member of the Swiss National Parliament. In 1991, she founded the contemporary art gallery Analix Forever. Today, she primarily works as a writer, curator, and gallerist in Switzerland and internationally. Her long-standing interest in the human body connects her scientific and artistic practice, while her commitment to knowledge transmission has led her to collaborate with contemporary art specialists and teach critical and creative writing at HEAD–Geneva. She has curated numerous exhibitions in Europe and beyond, often focusing on themes of freedom, art, and incarceration, and co-founded VIDEO FOREVER in 2011 with Paul Ardenne to promote video art through academic screenings and talks. In 2017, she initiated SHARING PERAMA, a cultural, artistic, ecological, and social project in Perama, near Athens. Barbara Polla is also a novelist, poet, and essayist, publishing widely on art, gender, and society, and is a frequent international speaker and contributor to opinion media and art publications.

LUISA BALLIN (Italy/Switzerland), Journalist    I   Moderator

Luisa Ballin is an Italian-Swiss journalist who works in French, English, Spanish and Italian. Since April 2013, she has been the UN correspondent (Geneva) for the Swiss bi-monthly magazine La Cité. She also collaborates with the Swiss Press Club in Geneva on Mondays of Governance. She moved to Geneva in 1981 to gain professional experience in journalism and institutional affairs and is now a journalist registered with the Swiss Professional Register (RP). Her most recent articles have been published in the Swiss daily newspapers Le Temps and Le Courrier, the Swiss bi-monthly magazine La Cité, the magazine UN Special and on the websites of the Infosud agency and the Swiss Press Club.

Co-Organisers

The Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation is a Swiss private charitable foundation with its centre for dialogue and peacebuilding, the Caux Palace, in Caux, above Montreux, Switzerland. Its mission is to provide a safe and privileged space to inspire, equip and connect individuals, groups and organisations from around the globe to engage effectively and innovatively in the promotion of trust, ethical leadership, sustainable living and human security.

The Geneva Peacebuilding Platform Foundation is a knowledge hub that connects the critical mass of peacebuilding actors, resources, and expertise in Geneva and worldwide.  Founded in 2008, the Platform has a mandate to facilitate interaction on peacebuilding between different institutions and sectors and to advance new knowledge and understanding of issues and contexts related to building peace. It also plays a creative role in building bridges between International Geneva, the United Nations peacebuilding architecture in New York, and peacebuilding activities in the field. As of July 2024, to perpetuate this initiative,  the GPP became a Foundation, to provide a platform to facilitate interaction on peacebuilding and peacekeeping between different sectors and institutions. The Platform's network comprises more than 4'000 peacebuilding professionals working on building peace directly or indirectly. The Platform ensures the continuous exchange of information through seminars, consultations, and conferences, and facilitates outcome-oriented dialogues on peacebuilding practice.

Practical Information

• Cost: Free entrance (registration required)
• Where: Maison de la Paix, Geneva | DCAF, 9th Floor
• When: 16 March 2026  I 12:00–13:30
• Questions? Email us
• Interested in join us at the Caux Arts and Peace Encounters (10 - 13 May 2026). Find out more! 

REGISTRATION

This event is free of charge, but we invite you to register to help us organise it in the best possible way.