Eröffnung von Ruth Erdt: K12 Schwamendingen

Zurich’s Schwamendingen could be seen to typify a Swiss suburb; it is comparable with Geneva’s Meyrin or Bümpliz-Bethlehem in Bern. Schwamendingen lies to the north of Zürich and is designated Kreis 12 (Kreis meaning district, thus K12). The A1 motorway splits the district – 120’000 vehicles pass through each day – and it lies on the southern flight path into nearby Kloten Airport. The district is (or was) viewed as both a suburban ghetto and a bland garden city and is home to more than 32’000 people from countries far and wide. It is said that in such suburbs, what is absolutely Swiss (geraniums on the balcony) meets the foreign (cooking with spices). Be that as it may, Schwamendingen is as much a reality as it is cliché: the place is a legend, and people there are proud of their Schwamendingen.

The fact that Schwamendingen is now invited into the centre of Zürich at Kunsthalle Zürich can be seen as a triumph, the revenge of the agglomeration or as the normal course of history. We have the artist Ruth Erdt, who has been photographing Schwamendingen for almost 20 years, to thank for this. She has taken more than 60,000 pictures since 2006, resulting in a long-term study that traces the changes in such a place. It is a research project using the methods of art – and it is a tribute to the people there.

Erdt’s exhibition is, not least, a reflection on the medium of photography in 5,000 images: photography as a means of documentation; as engaged detective work; photography enabling beauty, honour and self-confidence; as an indictment and a form of activism – and thus as art in the service of society.