Bibliotopia 2026 | Interview with Lucienne Peiry and Michel Thévoz

Art Brut, Language from the Margins
Moderated by Charlotte Dufour

Lucienne Peiry, Swiss art historian, curator and essayist, directed the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne from 2004 to 2011, before developing the museum’s research and international relations until 2014. She has organised more than forty exhibitions, including "Seeing the Invisible. Art Brut and the Beyond" at the International Museum of the Reformation in Geneva. A Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, she is the author of numerous books, such as "L’Art Brut" (Flammarion, 2016, reissued 2023) and "Écrits d’Art Brut" (Seuil, 2020), seminal works on art outside the mainstream of the art world, indifferent to social and cultural norms, and at once free, fragile, and subversive.

Michel Thévoz is a Swiss essayist, curator, art historian, and the first director of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, serving from its opening in 1976 until 2001. His numerous publications include "Requiem pour la folie" (La Différence, 2017), "Pathologie du cadre" (Minuit, 2020), "Les écrits bruts" (Éditions du Canoë, 2021), and "L’Art Brut ressourcé" (Frémok, 2025). He recently contributed to the book "Art brut en Suisse. Des origines de la collection à aujourd’hui" (5 Continents, 2026), edited by Sarah Lombardi. Art history is reimagined through his erudite and subversive writing, questioning madness and conventions.

Fondation Jan Michalski, Sunday 31 May 2026