Tuesday, 30 October 2018, 07 pm

Based on the show currently on view at the Kunsthalle Bern, Independence by Tobias Kaspar, many of whose works were inspired by the archive of an embroidery firm in St. Gallen, the lecture sheds light on the theme of “textile archives.” They exist in almost all textile companies, but are sorted quite differently and have been used in their often more than 100-year history in the most various ways. An important feature of all textile archives is that the designs they include are usually anonymous. The lecture addresses the underlying structure of the textile industry as well as the efforts of the silk industry in Zurich to utilize its archives in the postindustrial phase for education, research and sources of inspiration for contemporary design and art.

Alexis Schwarzenbach is a historian, author and curator. He studied history in Oxford and Florence and has been professor at the Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst since 2015. His publications include Die Geborene. Renée Schwarzenbach-Wille und ihre Familie, Das verschmähte Genie. Albert Einstein und die Schweiz sowie Königliche Träume. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Monarchie. He is currently working on a history of the silk industry in Zurich since 1800.

Lecture in German

Picture caption:
Company archive of the silk-weaving mill Weisbrod-Zürrer, Hausen am Albis, November 2011, Copyright 2018 by Alexis Schwarzenbach