JOY WILL ENDURE !

In October 2020, a handful of activists established Switzerland’s first ZAD (Zone à Défendre) on Mormont Hill. Little by little, a growing community gathered there to defend this landscape, which was under threat from the expansion of the quarry operated by the multinational Holcim. From the erection of the first huts and barricades right through to their demolition and the brutal eviction carried out by the police, the site was inhabited, transformed and held. The aims of this communal living quickly went beyond simply ‘against Holcim’ to become a vast, complex and multifaceted ‘for’.

Having gained the trust of the activists, photographer Nora Rupp documents, throughout this 165-day occupation, the communal life being forged in the natural world, the everyday gestures and the tension of an unequal struggle waged by ordinary citizens against a concrete giant. This transformative experience prompts her to use her lens to open up a space for dialogue between a society anxious about anything that falls outside the norm and people united by optimism and the desire to imagine alternative possibilities.

In a world fractured by profound climatic and social crises, JOY WILL ENDURE ! invites us to examine our own relationship with life and with others, as well as our models of organisation. Conceived in close collaboration with activists from the ZAD, the exhibition brings together photographs that won awards at the Swiss Press Photo 2022, as well as previously unseen works and portraits depicting ZAD activists skilfully disguised to preserve their anonymity. These images highlight the limits of individual activism and emphasise the beauty and creative power of living together.