We Are Your History – How Distant Realities Connect with Swiss Realities through Colonialism

Artist and researcher Denise Bertschi shares audio excerpts from her work on Swiss involvement in colonialism and commodity trading. The video Helvécia, Brazil (2017) retraces stories of enslavement and colonial violence on Swiss-owned coffee plantations in northeastern Brazil in the 19th century. Confidential (2018) engages with the gold trade between Switzerland and South Africa during the years of apartheid. Bertschi reflects on the sonic dimension of her approach and on the importance of oral history in countering hegemonic narratives and archival silences. With State Fiction, Neutral Only in the Outside (2021), she considers the aporia of a “neutral ear,” advocating for a reformulation of Swiss neutrality and a politics of reparation.

Denise Bertschi (born 1983 in Aarau, Switzerland) is an artist and researcher at the intersection of visual culture, history, and architecture. She critically investigates archives, landscapes, and the built environment on their colonial traces related to Switzerland’s extra-european expansion. Her research unfolds in installations, publications, or films and raises questions around cultural myths such as Swiss neutrality or coloniality, and their longue durée into present environmental crises.

Denise Bertschi holds a PhD from the Arts of Sciences Laboratory at the Department of Architecture at EPFL Lausanne. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (FR), Swiss National Museum Zurich (CH), Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH), Swiss Art Awards (CH), Artsonje Center Seoul (KR), Artivist Johannesburg (ZA), and LACA Los Angeles (US).