Exhibition at the “Musée Grütli”: The other Switzerland

On June 14th, the exhibition “Interrupted itineraries. Faces of Social Welfare” will open below the Rütli meadow. The theme of the exhibition could not be more topical. As a consequence of the corona pandemic, many Swiss residents will be applying for social welfare for the first time. Over the past three years, film artist and photographer Ghislaine Heger has shown the exhibition with portraits of welfare recipients in more than 15 locations in French-speaking Switzerland.[nbsp]For this exhibition, Ghislaine Heger has teamed up with scenographer Michia Schweizer to set up a structure that leads the spectator to experience, through different senses, the link between the issue, the people involved and their own existence.

The Swiss Society for Common Good (SSCG) has succeeded in bringing this exhibition to the “Musée Grütli” with additionally created video films and audio contributions. The people portrayed in the exhibition are between 19 and 63 years old. Their fates are individually different: a dismissal, an accident, a divorce, a tormented childhood, an unstable professional situation or some of it all at once. Some of the people portrayed only needed social welfare for a few weeks or months, others needed it for several years. Listening to the testimonies of those affected by poverty, one discovers how much and how quickly a path that people had hoped would always be linear can be turned upside down. In the exhibition, visitors will find forms to draw up their own social welfare budget and find out in concrete terms what expenses they previously took for granted would suddenly no longer be covered by social welfare.

Flyer of the exhibition

For more information: www.sgg-ssup.ch/en/info-musee.html