parastatal

Swiss Ocean Services

Arts EN ↓ 3 episodes

This series explores Switzerland’s historical and ongoing entanglements with colonialism, extractivism, and racism, as well as the nation’s persistent hesitation to confront and assume responsibility for these legacies. Epitomized in apparent paradoxes such as ‘colonialism without colonies’, ‘a global trading hub without natural resources’, and ‘a marine giant without a sea’, Switzerland’s self-perception as an innocent and neutral political entity is sustained by a Swiss ‘tradition of not-remembering’. Like a shell whose resonance evokes memories, Swiss Ocean Services mobilizes sound as a med...

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parastatal

Episodes

Sound Colonial Knowledge in the MEG Collection 16.04.2026 27:36

Raphaela von Weichs discusses her provenance research on musical instruments for the exhibition ‘Afrosonica – soundscapes’ (2025) at the Geneva Museum of Ethnography (MEG). The conversation explores the “biographies” of objects, how they were collected, often through missionary strategies or scientific missions, and the colonial ideologies that facilitated their acquisition for Switzerland. By exa...

We Are Your History – How Distant Realities Connect with Swiss Realities through Colonialism 11.12.2025 36:16

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...

Symphony Les Echanges 21.10.2025 39:48

This new series begins with a striking moment in Switzerland’s sonic history. For the 1964 Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne, composer Rolph Liebermann unveiled Symphonie Les Échanges — an extraordinary orchestra of 156 automated office machines. Typewriters clattered, calculating machines whirred, cash registers chimed, teleprinters clicked, horns blared, and telephone sets rang in precise co...