In partnership with the City of Annemasse
Verbatim by Maya Le Bars
Verbatim is a doorway into the imagination, inviting us to look and to listen. This installation—a sculpture combining photography and text—was created in La Fantasia Park by Maya Le Bars as part of the Ducastel Prize, awarded through a competition organized by HEAD – Genève.
The text is a snippet of a conversation overheard on-site, and the image is an extreme close-up of a pinecone from the park. The detail becomes a wondrous, almost abstract landscape, as mysterious as the poetic text that begs to be interpreted. These two elements engage in a dialogue, like two people in conversation. Illuminated by the sun like stained glass, they cast a colored shadow that shifts with the weather and the path of the sun. The transparency, the play of reflections, and the front and back—which invite viewers to walk around, see, read, and even look through the piece—turn both the audience and the park itself into active participants in this story.
The Ducastel Prize:
The Ducastel Prize pays tribute to the French sculptor Michel Ducastel (1925–2008). Since 2012, it has offered a student or recent graduate of HEAD – Genève the opportunity to exhibit an original work in La Fantasia Park, in the very heart of the Les Musical'été 2026 festival, which runs from July 3 to August 22, 2026, in Annemasse.
