The exhibition takes the removal of the racist mural by Eugen Jordi and Emil Zbinden from Wylergut Primary School and its (subsequent) donation to the Bernisches Historisches Museum as an opportunity to examine the history and current relevance of racism and colonialism in Bern. It also draws attention to the many forms of resistance that have accompanied the colonial project from the beginning. Employing a timeline that runs throughout the exhibition, the exhibition focuses on the controversies sparked by the mural and its removal from Wylergut Primary School in Bern. This timeline illustrates the breadth of the debate surrounding the mural. Independent contributions from researchers, journalists, activists, and cultural practitioners who have long dedicated their expertise to campaigning for an anti-racist present and future offer ideas for reflection. Their contributions do not aim to offer conclusive answers, but rather to inspire further discussion. Neither the mural nor its creators are the prime focus of this exhibition. Instead, the mural and the surrounding controversy become a lens through which we can see just how much Bern society has been shaped by colonialism. They also document how this society attempts to deal with ongoing racism in the present.

In 1949, artists Eugen Jordi and Emil Zbinden painted a mural with racist stereotypes in Wylergut Primary School in Bern. In 2019, the city of Bern launched a transdisciplinary competition to address the racist imagery in the mural. The winning proposal, ‘Das Wandbild muss weg!’ (The Mural Must Go!), consisted of three parts: Firstly, the removal of the mural from the school building; secondly, the donation of the mural to the Bernisches Historisches Museum; and thirdly, the use of the empty wall in the school as a temporary art installation commemorating the pain associated with the mural.
After lengthy negotiations between the relevant institutions, authorities, and individuals, the project could be realised: In 2023, the mural was carefully removed from the school wall by conservation specialists and donated to the Bernisches Historisches Museum. In 2025, artist Shirana Shahbazi will create an artistic intervention at the former location of the mural in Wylergut Primary School.
Throughout the project's duration, the project team has shared their critical examination of the mural with a wide public and generated new forms of participation. The intention has been to raise awareness of postcolonial and anti-racist perspectives and to trigger a societal learning process.

Funding: Burgergemeinde Bern, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Federal Service for Combating Racism, Gwärtler Stiftung, Kultur Stadt Bern, Neues Wir, Pro Helvetia, Stiftung Corymbo, Swisslos Kultur Kanton Bern

In the name of science, two Basel naturalists Fritz and Paul Sarasin,brought exotic animals and plants, ethnological and archaeological objects, as well as skulls and skeletons from various colonial territories to Basel around 1900. In doing so, they laid the foundation for one of the largest ethnological collections in German-speaking Europe. The history of the Sarasins was comprehensively examined in Bernhard C. Schär's study ‘Tropenliebe’ (Tropical Love). Based on this study, Ryser and Schonfeldt initiated a research project focusing on the gaps in the Sarasin collections in Basel and invited artists from Indonesia and Sri Lanka to engage with these objects and their history. In cooperation with Theater Basel, which produced a play about the lives of the Sarasins, Ryser and Schonfeldt curated an exhibition and mediation project in the theatre's foyer. This resulted in ten different art works by Rahmat Arham, Deneth Piumakshi Wedaarachchige, Julia Sarisetiati, 'Jimged' Ary Sendy Trisdiarto, Angela Wittwer, as well as Ryser and Schonfeldt. All artworks reference and comment on each other within the overarching exhibition structure. Thus, a material and visual world is created in the foyer of the theatre that refers to the colonial connections between Switzerland, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka around 1900, commenting on and critiquing these connections from a polycentric perspective and from various geographical viewpoints. The exhibition is accompanied by a public programme featuring guests from the fields of science, art, and education.

Funding: ETH Zurich, SNF Agora Project, Pro Helvetia, Christoph Merian Foundation, Ernst Göhner Foundation, Aargau Kuratorium

Kars Gravyer is a Greyerzer cheese from Turkey that resembles Emmental. However, it is much more than that. Although based on a recipe that travelled to Eastern Anatolia with Swiss migrant cheese makers over a hundred years ago, it has developed its own unique flavour and history within the local context. Today, Kars Gravyer is a well-known cheese specialty throughout Turkey.
It is produced in Kars, a small town on the eastern Anatolian border, near Armenia. In a year-long research project conducted in archives in Bern, Zurich, Istanbul, and Ankara, Özgür Atlagan, Onur Gökmen, and Vera Ryser explored the migration history of Kars Gravyer. During a three-week research trip, they documented the artisanal production of Gravyer in the surrounding villages of Kars as well as the cheese trade in Kars. Consisting of documentary footage from Kars and quotations from historical letters and documents, the video essay illustrates how migration creates a complex, cross-border network of exchange. These networks not only facilitate the movement of people but also promote the transfer and transformation of ideas, goods, and cultural practices across national borders.

Funding: Canton of Fribourg Cultural Promotion Fund, Migros Culture Percentage, Fonds culturel Sud, Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung

At the Wiedikon train station in Zurich, two murals still hang today. Originally installed in 1927, they were part of the station's inauguration in the ticket hall and aimed to promote the Jelmoli Department Store.
The mural on one side features three well-dressed white women at its centre, engaged in conversation with a white salesman while examining a fabric. Additionally, there is a white child reading a book and another child playing with a wooden train. The mural on the opposite side depicts three People of Colour at its centre, offering colonial goods such as tea, tropical fruits, and a carpet for sale. They represent various regions from which Switzerland sourced colonial goods in the 1920s.
In contrast to the first image, these three figures are presented frontally: they directly face the viewers, promoting their goods. The juxtaposition of the two images reveals the construction of the so-called ‘Other’: the white figures are associated with books and trains, symbolising the supposed advancements of Western civilization – wealth, knowledge, technology, and leisure. In contrast, People of Colour are reduced to their clichéd roles as ‘carpet sellers’ or ‘fruit vendors’. They also have less agency: while the white figures are depicted as active participants in society, People of Colour can only wait submissively for their goods to be purchased.
The two murals illustrate how, against the backdrop of a violent imperial world order, a racist distinction was made between an allegedly progressive ‘Us’ and a supposedly exotic ‘Other’. This process is referred to as ‘Othering’, and it has become ingrained in the thinking and actions of Swiss society to this day. The depth of this issue is emphasised by the fact that the murals were meticulously restored in 1997 and placed under heritage protection along with the entire station.
What does it mean that these racist depictions of People of Colour still hang in Wiedikon station today, and what message do these stereotypical images convey to daily commuters? Should they be removed as racist (advertising) images from public space, or do these images allow us to remember Switzerland's colonial entanglements? Who defines what constitutes our cultural heritage? And whose cultural heritage remains excluded from this definition?
Records of conversations with passersby about the murals have been made accessible to the public alongside further research material in an exhibition at Raum*Station.

Funding: Pro Helvetia Research Contribution, Raum*Station

In February 1975, 180 women of various nationalities in Zurich wrote the "Manifesto of Foreign Women and Women of Foreign Men." In it, they demanded progressive political and social rights and publicly fought to gain recognition in Swiss society. The manifesto was subsequently discussed in various Swiss media, often briefly and heatedly, and was frequently subject to defamation. However, many of the demands remain relevant today.
This commitment to the political and social rights of women who immigrated to Switzerland is an important yet little-known part of Swiss history that, forty years on, urgently needs to be brought to public attention. The exhibition "We Demand!" showcases several narrative interviews with women who authored the manifesto in 1975 and reported on their political work. On two evenings, various feminist organisations and women involved in the manifesto were invited to participate in panel discussions.

Funding: Manifesta Parallel Events, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)

After World War II, many Italians made the journey from Italy to Switzerland to work and build a new life. Their labour significantly contributed to the economic upswing in Switzerland. Initially, most migrants came from Northern Italy. Starting in the late 1950s, an increasing number of Southern Italians also migrated to Switzerland, including to Laufenburg. In 1958, the first men from Leonforte, a small town in the interior of Sicily, arrived in Laufenburg, a small town in Aargau region. Later, women and children joined them. In the exhibition, around twenty individuals share their memories of migrating from Leonforte to Laufenburg. At five thematic audio stations with personal photographs, the protagonists from the early days recount their experiences as "Italian migrants" during the period from 1958 to 1970. Additionally, individuals from subsequent generations share their experiences. These narratives and personal photographs provide insights into their daily lives and recount feelings of rejection and fear, but also of connection, and bear testament to their experiences of exchange, and change in their surroundings. For the first time migrants are made visible as an important part of Laufenburg's history.
The exhibition and audio installations are bilingual (Italian/German).

Funding: Swisslos Kanton Aargau, Stiftung für Bevölkerung, Migration und Umwelt (BMU), Stiftung Pro Fricktal, Römisch-Katholische Kirche im Aargau, Ortsbürger Stadt Laufenburg (CH), Laufenburg, Walenstadt am Rhein (DE), Neue Aargauer Bank, versch. Gewerbebetriebe in Laufenburg

On behalf of the Zurich University of the Arts, the exhibition ‘Milking Toni’ documents the transformation of the Toni Areal in Zurich from the establishment of Europe's former largest dairy factory in 1977 to its current function as a campus. Five research volumes reveal architectural and industrial traces of the former dairy factory across Switzerland, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, and Pakistan.
Volume 1 narrates the architectural history of the Toni Areal. Volumes 2 – 4 document the history and current locations of each of the former Toni machines that were liquidated in 1999. These machines were sold to Dietikon (Switzerland), Turkey, Poland, Russia, and Pakistan. The research volumes contain documentation of the machines and their present locations by local photographers, as well as archival material, interviews with former factory employees, and factsheets.
The search for the Toni machines contextualises the transformation of the Toni Areal within an international trade framework and explores the global implications of industrial and urban change in Zurich. The five research volumes are displayed in a former factory salt bath used in the mozzarella production removed from the Toni Areal in 1999. Additionally, the exhibition features an audio installation with nine interviews from key figures who have influenced and accompanied the transformation of the Toni Areal from an industrial area to a university campus in various ways.

The annual programme by the transdisciplinary platform Z+ at Zurich University of the Arts makes current format experiments in art, music, film, theatre, education, and design accessible and debates the potential that becomes visible in the development of new presentation formats. Workshops, an international conference, concerts, and artistic interventions take place throughout the year at the university.