Denise Bertschi: Oasis of Peace. Neutral Only On The Outside

Denise Bertschi: Oasis of Peace. Neutral Only On The Outside September 12–November 14, 2021

Artist talk with Heonik Kwon: October 21
Artist talk with Denise Bertschi and Doris Gassert,

Cracks in appearances, representations out of step with reality, and gaps in historiography are all of interest to Denise Bertschi (b. 1983). The artist seeks in her work to render visible the links between Switzerland and global geopolitics. To this end, she retraces Swiss colonial entanglements and ambivalent relations in the world of economics, while calling into question narratives of nationalism and the notion of neutrality. Using the tools of historians, anthropologists, or investigative journalists, she creates installations and videos in which archival documents and personal photographs commingle with the narratives of the people she encounters and the findings of her own research.

The exhibition Oasis of Peace. Neutral Only On The Outside establishes unexpected links between Switzerland and two regions of major geopolitical importance: first, the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea; and second, apartheid South Africa. Switzerland has played its cards cleverly in both cases, using to its own ends a “neutrality” that the historian Hans-Ulrich Jost has characterized as “self-serving“ and “dualist.“