In the spotlight: couture and Swiss fabrics. The exhibition ‘Mise en Scène’ combines international photographic art with the regional textile industry, illustrating more than 120 years of fashion, photography and social history.
Textiles are omnipresent. Tens of thousands of people once earned their living in the region that was (Eastern) Switzerland designing, producing and trading textiles. Nowadays, they envelope and surround us from dawn to dusk. Good Fabric – what is that? How has it changed in the past, what shape will it take in future?
In 1972 the photographer Barbara Davatz placed the entire workforce of Firma H. Walser, a textile printing and thread manufacturing company in Zürchersmühle (AR), in front of the camera. In this way, she portrayed 38 men and women, noting the name, birth date, nationality and trade or area of activity of each employee. The result is a multi-layered photographic work which in its calm, unsentimental objectivity bears witness to social commitment, openness and a sense of attentiveness. While the series can be interpreted as a reaction to the so-called Schwarzenbach Initiative, the portraits represent something much more than a snapshot: […]
