At Your Earliest Convenience

The interior of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, today the European headquarters of the UN, is a stage-like amalgam of gifts from its member states and reflects aesthetic concepts of international politics since the 1930s. Many gifts are still in sight and bear witness to these historical national representations. Others were stored, displaced or just disappeared in the aftermath of historical unrest. Their absence points at inherent power structures and whispers stories of changing political concepts and aesthetics.

This publication photographically scans the conference halls, corridors, offices, archives, and the surrounding park of the Palais des Nations and brings together textual contributions that follow traces that also refer to the absent and create an echo for fleeting presences and the possibility of a gift without conditions.

The publication is part of the EPoD research project, Esthétiques politiques du don au Palais des Nations.

Authors : Petra Köhle, Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin
Concept and editing : Petra Köhle, Federica Martini, Georg Rutishauser, Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin
Text contributions : Kadiatou Diallo, Caterina Giansiracusa, Samia Henni, Petra Köhle, Federica Martini, Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin, Julia Wolf
Publication date : September 2023
Co-edition : EDHEA and edition fink
ISBN : 978-3-03746-260-7
Price : CHF 48.-