Swiss Ocean Services

parastatal
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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 medium for critical aural history. The posts presented here aim to revitalize conversations on Sonic Swissness, its past and current manifestations, and necessary reformulations in more solidary and inclusive ways. https://parastatal.art/sound-series/@swissocean

Episodes

  1. We Are Your History – How Distant Realities Connect with Swiss Realities through Colonialism

    12/11/2025

    We Are Your History – How Distant Realities Connect with Swiss Realities through Colonialism

    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 of apartheid. Bertschi reflects on the sonic dimension of her approach and on the importance of oral history in countering hegemonic narratives and archival silences. With State Fiction, Neutral Only in the Outside (2021), she considers the aporia of a “neutral ear,” advocating for a reformulation of Swiss neutrality and a politics of reparation. Denise Bertschi (born 1983 in Aarau, Switzerland) is an artist and researcher at the intersection of visual culture, history, and architecture. She critically investigates archives, landscapes, and the built environment on their colonial traces related to Switzerland’s extra-european expansion. Her research unfolds in installations, publications, or films and raises questions around cultural myths such as Swiss neutrality or coloniality, and their longue durée into present environmental crises. Denise Bertschi holds a PhD from the Arts of Sciences Laboratory at the Department of Architecture at EPFL Lausanne. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (FR), Swiss National Museum Zurich (CH), Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH), Swiss Art Awards (CH), Artsonje Center Seoul (KR), Artivist Johannesburg (ZA), and LACA Los Angeles (US).

    36 min
  2. Symphony Les Echanges

    10/21/2025

    Symphony Les Echanges

    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 coordination. Conceived as a celebration of Swiss trade, banking, and logistics on a global scale, the piece reflected the nation’s ambition to present itself as modern, forward-looking, and powered by technological innovation. Gilles Aubry invites cultural anthropologist Patricia Jäggi to a listening session that weaves together sound, national identity, race, and technology — opening new ground for future conversations on “Sonic Swissness” as part of this series.

    40 min
  • 2 Episodes

About

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 medium for critical aural history. The posts presented here aim to revitalize conversations on Sonic Swissness, its past and current manifestations, and necessary reformulations in more solidary and inclusive ways. https://parastatal.art/sound-series/@swissocean

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