A “repair café” at the MEG: combining thought and action

Would you love to repair your scooter or food processor yourself? The Ethnography Museum (MEG) has joined forces with the Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC (the western Swiss consumer federation) to offer you a “repair café” at the very heart of the museum on 2 April 2023, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The idea is simple: turn up with an object to be repaired (vacuum cleaner, kettle, rice cooker, iron, toaster, toy, lamp, furniture, CD player, radio alarm clock, remote control, bike, fan or even clothes).

With the help of specialists, get your hands dirty and repair it yourself – if, of course, it can be repaired!

For a full afternoon, learn how to repair your daily objects and appliances in order to fight against programmed obsolescence while thinking about the life of the waste we create. What place does it have in our daily life? What is it? Where does it come from? Where does it go? What becomes of it?

You will leave with new skills and a few new tricks, because the “sustainability” of a product, or in other words its “reparability”, begins with the purchase.

Deprogrammed obsolescence

First seen in Belgium, repair cafés gives faulty appliances a new lease of life. By prolonging their service life, this concept is a means of shunning the “throw-away” society.

An increasingly short product life cycle, programmed obsolescence and disposable consumer goods seem to have become the norm today, but the Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC) refuses to accept this, instead advocating sustainable consumption.

Practical information

Sunday 2 April – 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the entrance hall of the MEG.
This event is held on the first Sunday of the month, and is therefore free and does not require prior registration.