8th Harsch cultural appointment

MEG (The Museum of Ethnography of Geneva) offered us a warm welcome to their exhibition
"Vodou – a way of life"

"Enthralling", "Spellbinding", "Strange", "Disturbing" – are the words that were bandied around at
the end of our specially organized private visit!


For those who know nothing about Vodou, one should explain that to be met by characters with such enigmatic looks – many with stern faces and piercing eyes – can be very disturbing, conjuring up images of black magic, white magic, sorcery, religion, evil spells and dolls stuck with pins!

The secret of managing these emotions is to try to understand. In order to understand there is nothing like a visit to an exhibition accompanied by a guide who can answer all your questions: Why is there a bottle on the exhibition poster? Why are the clothes covered with mirrors? Why is there a special supermarket? We were fortunate in having been guided through this exhibition by someone coming directly from the source of Vodou in Haiti – Marianne Lehmann (a Swiss Vodou collector who has lived in Port-au-Prince since 1957). It was she who chose the objects for this world premier exhibition in Geneva.


Harsch Transports took on the challenge to transport the pieces for the exhibition and, based on just photographs and a list of items to be transported, designed and constructed wooden crates for the transportation of the pieces – veritable caskets for the two Vodou gods, their offerings and other cult objects.



Solace and comfort were restored to the 140 guests by the much anticipated and greatly appreciated flavours of the Caribbean buffet recreated by Our grateful thanks go to the friendly and cooperative MEG team who greatly contributed to the success of this Harsch Transports’ 8th “Rendez-Vous Culturel” and, more particularly, to Christine Détraz, Curator and Head of Visitor Relations, Gamila Walter, Guide, Philippe Mathez, Curator, Arnaud Robert, Journalist, Damien François, Guide, with a special thanks to Jacques Hainard, Direct of the Museum.

For more about MEG and its exhibitions visit: http://www.ville-ge.ch/meg
For information on the Latin-American Cultural Centre of Geneva visit: http://www.tierra-incognita.ch

To view an interactive presentation of the event visit

Many of the objects are on view in Geneva until 31 August 2008
The exhibition can then be seen:
Until the end of 2008 at the Tropenmuseum – Royal Tropical Institute – Amsterdam, Holland - http://www.kit.nl
During the 2nd semester of 2009 at the Museum of World Culture – Göteborg, Sweden - http://www.worldculture.se
During the 1st semester of 2010 at the Ethnologisches Museum – Berlin, Germany - http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de
From the end of 2010 to Spring 2011 at the Überseemuseum Bremen – Brême, Germany - http://www.uebersee-museum.de