Ruth Erdt

Ruth Erdt in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung!

Audio guide: Ruth Erdt's Schwamendingen (in German)

Schwamendingen in Zürich, like Geneva’s Meyrin or Bern’s Bümpliz-Bethlehem, is one of Switzerland’s legendary suburbs. Located at the northern end of Zürich, it was incorporated into the city of Zürich in 1934 and designated ‘District 12’ (K12) in 1971. This is why this exhibition is named K12 Schwamendingen.

Schwamendingen lies under the southern flight path of Zürich’s nearby Kloten Airport and is bisected by the A1 motorway, on which 120,000 vehicles travel every day. Schwamendingen’s Chilbi fair is famous throughout Switzerland, as are the rapper Bligg, TV presenter and actress Viola Tami, documentary film director Richard Dindo, and national footballer Ricardo Rodriguez, all of whom come from the district.

When she moved to Schwamendingen in the early 1990s, Ruth Erdt began to photograph her neighbourhood. As she recounts, it was a strange place for her at first, almost beyond the city, not really respected – many looked at it askance. “In my photos, I always tried to make Schwamendingen look as if the pictures could be anywhere – in Europe, in the world, but not in Zürich, not in Switzerland. Later, I began to take more specific photographs. Still with the aim of refusing any kind of categorisation, whether in terms of time or location. Themes were mainly gardens, the forest, demolished buildings, people and the Chilbi.” Then, however, she observed how her son’s generation claimed the place for themselves, turned prejudice into pride and celebrated K12 in music, tags and gesture. When Erdt’s collaboration with the Working Group on Art in Public Spaces (AG KiöR) began around 2012, she broadened her focus. The aim was to establish a dialogue by means of carefully crafted series: on the one hand a dialogue with the neighbourhood, but also with comparable outlying districts in European cities when it comes to gentrification, identity or profound upheavals caused by infrastructure projects.

Since then, Erdt has taken over 60,000 pictures, around 5,000 of which can be seen here, many of them for the first time. Erdt’s commitment has resulted in K12 Schwamendingen, an extended study of a particular place and an exemplary investigation of one subject using the tools of art. It is also a tribute to the people who live and work here, the students, workers, creatives and those left behind, pensioners, children and dogs, the people who only live here for a short time – and those who will never move away. And, last but not least, it is a study in the potential of photography and how it is presented. Thus this exhibition explores different media: framed photography, photography as art, photography as a poster, as a slideshow, as a document, as a curtain and a banner, as disposable and Instagram, as wallpaper and photography as a means to literally and figuratively take a portrait. The exhibition celebrates Schwamendingen as an extraordinarily ordinary place. It is an homage to an apparent normality that does not exist without its antithesis, drama. It is no coincidence that the environmentally destructive motorway route keeps cropping up – and the massive construction project associated with it: a 450 million-worth enclosure of the motorway that the population lobbied for over decades. This started in March 2019, will be completed this year and cover 950 metres of motorway. A park will be built on top of the enclosed section, a High Line to reconnect previously divided neighbourhoods.

Schwamendingen as Zürich's Kreis 12

Schwamendingen was a farming village for a long time before it was incorporated in 1934, becoming part of the city of Zürich. Planned as a garden city by municipal architect Albert Heinrich Steiner in 1948, the combination of garden and city, rural life and urbanity that he aspired to is still clearly visible. Schwamendingerplatz is located in the district’s centre, with shops, cafés and public transport links to Zürich City. This is adjoined by mediumdensity residential developments that have been laid out with plenty of green space. The crowning glory is the Ziegelhütte, one of Zurich’s most popular restaurants for excursions; visitors enjoy a bird’s eye view of the garden city.

The proportion of relatively affordable, cooperative housing is (still) high to this day: ‘Sixteen housing cooperatives still provide a third of all flats in Schwamendingen today; together with municipal properties and charitable foundations, the figure is 46% [...] In the 1940s and 1950s, the population of Schwamendingen increased tenfold from around 3,000 to 33,000. After a decline in the 1990s and a surge in construction in the last 15 years, the population is back to around 33,000 in 2020 [...] In 2018, there are two neighbourhoods [in Zürich] with a proportion of foreigners of over 40 percent: Schwamendingen-Mitte (42.7 percent) and Seefeld (40.8 percent). Average annual incomes, on the other hand, differ considerably: 36,000 Swiss francs in Schwamendingen-Mitte and 69,000 Swiss francs in Seefeld.’ (Philipp Klaus in the publication accompanying the exhibition).

In 1971, Schwamendingen was named district 12: it is K12, burbs and culture, town and country, norm and deviation, Switzerland and yet not. Schwamendingen’s peculiar normality has fascinated and interested people for decades; it is a model, a melting pot and an in-between place. It was probably no coincidence that Nikolaus Wyss and Walter Keller founded the pioneering ethnological magazine ‘Der Alltag – Sensationsblatt des Gewöhnlichen’ (Everyday Life – Sensational Journal of the Ordinary) there in the early 1980s. It inspired a new way of thinking about the city, culture and everyday life far beyond Switzerland’s borders. Wyss was one of Schwamendingen’s early cultural patrons – and he was a co-founder of Kunsthalle Zürich in 1985. His guided tours of Schwamendingen remain unforgettable, ‘masterclasses in folklore with a wry sense of humour’ writes Urs Stahel in the publication accompanying the exhibition. Wyss also initiated the Schwamendingen Opera and the Büchertreff co-operative, from which the Bücherfreunde association developed. Bernhard Vogelsanger’s world’s smallest opera – in his own flat – remains just as unforgettable: Vogelsanger is composer, as well as conductor, orchestra, set designer, director, tailor and actor. Filmmaker Raoul Meier, who has frequently documented and portrayed K12 on film, also lives in Schwamendingen. There is also the local museum, the Tenne, an art gallery which shows temporary exhibitions, as well as a historical museum. Not to mention many clubs and societies that further enrich life in the district.

It was significant that the Working Group on Art in Public Spaces (AG KiöR) organised the ‘Lokaltermin Schwamendingen: Art Observations’ from 2010 to 2019. On behalf of KiöR, artists including Cristian Andersen, Luigi Archetti, Bob Gramsma, Nic Hess, San Keller, Michael Meier and Christoph Franz, Pamela Rosenkranz, David Renggli and Veronika Spierenburg realised various projects – and Ruth Erdt was involved time and again. She took part as an artist, mediator and coorganiser – and has been photographing and documenting this place in transition for years.

It is hardly surprising that Maya Burri, former president of the local neighbourhood association, a well-known figure for many years, was able to say: “Those who don’t know Schwamendingen are rude about our neighbourhood. And those who live here never want to move away.“

The exhibition is accompanied by the 900-page publication K12 – Schwamendingen, On the Periphery of Zürich, published by Steidl Verlag, with over 600 illustrations and contributions by Philipp Klaus, Urs Stahel and the artist herself, among others.

Our thanks go to Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Canton of Zürich Department of Culture/Swisslos, Stiftung Ema und Curt Burgauer, Baugenossenschaft Süd-Ost Zürich.

The exhibition K12 – Schwamendingen was realised with the support of the City of Zürich, Art in Public Space (KiöR) and is based on a durational photographic study. It was created as part of the KiöR’s multi-year project ‘Lokaltermin Schwamendingen’.