PAVILLON – Simone Weil Denkkollektiv

This project forms part of the Pavillon Simone Weil (Geneva, March 31 – June 16, 2026) by Thomas Hirschhorn and is hosted by the Denkkollektiv in collaboration with the following contributors:

Mae Bengert, Sophia Eisenhut, Fraktalwerk Berlin, Elisabeth Hubmann, Polya Medvedeva, Britta Müller-Schauenburg, Beatriz Nuñes, Bartosz Olszewski, Tobias Pöhl, Stella Rehbein, Nina Sassenroth, Tom Sojer, Max Walther, Sebids Weiland.

“What Does It Mean to Actualize?” (“Was heißt realisieren?”) is intended as a collective workshop for thinking and acting that unfolds over eleven weeks. During this time, we will be in Geneva in various constellations—whenever possible, working together. The weeks are organized according to a recurring, internally mirrored structure. The starting point is the question we pose together with Simone Weil: What does it mean to actualize?

Practice of Embroidery.

We embroider. This simple, precise form—one that calls us into presence—draws inspiration from spiritual exercises across different traditions. We understand it as a framing, holding, and connecting ritual that links meditation with communal togetherness and becoming-present, developing over eleven weeks into a tangible, visible fabric of time composed of countless threads and movements of the needle.

Each person embroiders a thought, a sentence, a fragment onto their own piece of fabric. We gather all these pieces. In the final two weeks, they are sewn together into a large shared tablecloth—a collective textile of thought, a resonant body made of hands, threads, and words. An embroidered text explains to visitors embroidery itself as a form of actualization.