The world as seen by Swiss photographers
In February 1978, the Swiss ambassador to Iran inaugurated a travelling exhibition of photography. During its world tour, the exhibition showed in several Iranian cities. In the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, the public had the opportunity to see a selection of Swiss photography from the 1840s up to the second half of the 20th century.
Among others, the show included works of Gertrud Dübi-Müller, Hans Staub, Gotthard Schuh, Werner Bischof, and Luc Chessex. Parts of the exhibition portrayed Swiss life in the 1930s and the social changes after World War II up to the riots of 1968 in the streets of Zurich. From the 1950s onwards Swiss photographers detected places such as e.g. India and Peru, which then were featured in expansive reports. Specific genres of photography, including portraits, features, and photo-essays were also considered.
The Pro Helvetia exhibition of Swiss photography proved to be a rare moment of Swiss cultural presence in Iran. In the second half of the 20th century, Pro Helvetia did not much take Iran into its consideration, safe for the organisation of a concert tour for the "Freiburger Landwehr", the musical corps of the city and Canton of Fribourg, which was sent on official mission to the celebrations marking the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire in 1971.
Even at the time of the exhibition in Iran, photography was a new medium for Swiss cultural foreign policy. For the first time Pro Helvetia used it in 1958 by organising an exhibition dedicated to Werner Bischof’s work, which was shown in several European countries. The discovery of photography as an influential artistic medium was primarily due to the Swiss Foundation for Photography, founded 1971 in Zurich with the aim to preserve and highlight Switzerland’s photographic heritage. In 1974, Pro Helvetia was involved in this initiative and subsidised a photography exhibition at the Kunsthaus, Zurich and the Rath Museum, Geneva. In 1975, Pro Helvetia turned this exhibition into a travelling exhibition entitled Photography in Switzerland – 1840 to the Present Day, which started its world tour shortly afterwards.
In terms of creating a national identity, the exhibition promoted the image of a country open to the world, confronted with the same problems just as other nations. The numerous travel photos taken in India, Japan, and in South American countries bear witness to a genuine in-depth dialogue with different cultures. In the catalogue of the exhibition, Swiss writer Hugo Loetscher stated that the look at the other implies questioning the self. On this note Gotthard Schuh’s photo essay on Mussolini’s visit to Berlin in 1938, featured in Photography in Switzerland – 1840 to the present, can also be read as a reflection on Switzerland’s role in the Second World War.(tk)
Archive
AFS E9510.6 1991/51 Vol. 342 Pro Helvetia, procès-verbaux du groupe I
Bibliography
Photographes suisses depuis 1840 à nos jours, Zurich, Kunsthaus 1977