A groundbreaking photography exhibition in Lausanne, Switzerland, is offering an unprecedented glimpse into how Generation Z artists see and interpret the world around them. The exhibition "Gen Z. A New Perspective" at the Photo Elysée museum showcases works by 66 young artists from around the globe, most born between 1995 and 2010, running until February 1, 2026.
The exhibition opens with a striking image that could easily be mistaken for a casual Instagram post: five young women gathered in a bathroom, preparing for a party. One applies eyeshadow while another captures the scene with an analog camera, creating a mirror selfie. This photograph, however, serves as the gateway to a deeper exploration of how young people perceive themselves and their place in the world.
Curated around the central theme of "Belonging," the exhibition emerged from an extensive review of over a thousand art projects. According to curator Julie Dayer, the recurring question throughout these works was about identity and place: Where do I belong - in my family, in history, in my body, in a country? This search for belonging serves as the red thread connecting all the displayed works.
The exhibition is structured around the journey from home to the wider world. Artists begin by exploring their own homes, childhoods, and families - the first places where one experiences what it means to be part of a community, or conversely, to feel excluded from it. German-American photographer Francesca Hummler, born in 1997, exemplifies this approach through her work examining her own family history using a dollhouse as a backdrop.
Hummler's dollhouse, a family heirloom, becomes a symbol of family memory. She decorates its walls with miniature portraits of relatives, including her Ethiopian-adopted sister, whose searching gaze and single tear flowing from the corner of her eye speaks to the complexity of fractured identities. Through her art, Hummler aims to make visible the multilayered nature of people with fragmented identities, particularly focusing on her sister's search for belonging within the German-American family structure.
Moving beyond the domestic sphere, the second section addresses how external forces - war, climate change, and political unrest - shape personal identity. German artist duo Florian Gatzweiler (born 1998) and Sascha Levin (born 2000) present a compelling project centered on their friend Anton, a Ukrainian who fled to Poland during the war. The Berlin-based artists met Anton in Poland and maintained contact when he returned to Ukraine to join the army.
Their installation features screenshots of Anton's Instagram stories alongside photographs they took of him. The images show Anton's transformation from playing ping-pong with friends in Poland to wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle in Ukraine. The photographers describe these screenshots as a digital diary and an expression of Anton's search for community and new identity in times of conflict.
The third section delves into internal worlds, exploring themes of mental health, sexuality, and gender. Colombian artist Isabella Madrid (born 1999) presents provocative self-portraits that challenge societal expectations of women. In one image, she wears a platinum blonde wig and smiles with blood-stained teeth. Her work reflects how social networks and growing up in a violence-marked country have shaped her identity.
Madrid's series "Buena, Bonita, y Barata" (Good, Pretty, and Cheap) directly confronts the expectations placed on women. She describes growing up with specific expectations of how to be a woman: "Sexy, cheerful, warm-hearted and helpful, maternal but in an attractive way. Strong but submissive - to God, a man, or both." Her self-portraits deliberately exaggerate and caricature beauty ideals, posing with oversized fake breasts or misaligned colored contact lenses to subvert imposed norms.
The diversity of works reflects the curators' innovative approach to artist selection, searching where young people congregate: on the internet and social media platforms like Instagram. Social networks serve as a common denominator for Generation Z, creating shared experiences and feelings of connection. However, the digital world's ease of self-presentation, filtering, and constant reinvention can lead to both freedom and an endless search for identity and belonging.
Many works in the exhibition feature artists speaking about themselves and their own experiences, often through self-portraits. While this might suggest the stereotypical "selfie generation" at work, curator Julie Dayer offers a different interpretation. She explains that Generation Z doesn't presume to speak for others, instead drawing on personal experiences and sharing them as mirrors in which viewers can recognize themselves.
The exhibition successfully delivers on its promise of providing a new perspective on Generation Z, largely due to its diverse selection of artists and their varied viewpoints. Works from photographers across China, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United States create a collective self-portrait of an international, connected artistic generation. Featured artists include Fatimazohra Serri exploring femininity and womanhood, Daniel Obasi documenting political unrest in Nigeria, and Laurence Philomène sharing experiences as a non-binary person.
Other notable works include Emma Sarpaniemi from Finland examining definitions of femininity, Vuyo Mabheka from South Africa addressing growing up without a father, Chloe Azzopardi creating devices from natural materials that resemble everyday technology, and Ziyu Wang from China exploring themes of masculinity. Sophia Wilson addresses youth and growing up as a Black girl, while Claudia Fuggetti from Italy focuses on the transformation of humanity and nature.
The exhibition concludes with an interactive element, asking visitors "What does belonging mean to you?" and providing a wall where they can write their own interpretations. This participatory aspect reinforces the exhibition's central premise that identity and belonging are deeply personal yet universally relevant concepts that transcend generational boundaries, offering viewers a chance to reflect on their own relationship with these fundamental human experiences.
