THE ORDINARY
SWISS
Summary
The Ordinary Swiss. 2024. 20-minutes documentary and series of photos.
Photo assistants: Gabriela Arrabaço, Munira, Sam Lucibello
Models: Maxuba, Khadra, Nasra, Muna
Art direction, styling and photography by me.
Special thanks to Laurine Fayolle for the 360° camera equipment and Sayia fashion for the abayas featured in the shoot.
What image comes to mind when thinking of a Swiss person? The Ordinary Swiss is a 20-minute multiscreen documentary and series of accompanying photos exploring the representation of racialised Swiss people in the media landscape of French-speaking Switzerland. The portraits cement the presence of these often invisibilised individuals in the collective Swiss imaginary as they truly are: ordinary Swiss nationals. The documentary highlights 9 Muslim women in the context of their native medieval town of Sion, Valais, Switzerland. By disrupting the current conservative representation of the Swiss landscape (metaphorically and literally), I am making brown and black bodies the face of ‘Swiss-ness’ by reappropriating nationalist elements such as the Swiss natural landscape and national icons (ie. Heidi) to reflect on the question: who gets to be Swiss?
Details
Documentary:
Archival material from RTS archives and Canal9.
Soundtrack is Swiss bell sound and Alpine ambiant sound by VINDORA
INSTA360 One2 camera for the walking interviews footage
Canon Powershot g7xMark II and SONY HDR CX-240 for behind the scenes
Edited on DaVinci Resolve
Photography:
Canon Powershot g7xMark II
Edited on Lightroom
0. Pick a place that feels like home
1. What was it like to grow up as a 2nd-generation immigrant in Switzerland?
2. What is the Swiss identity?
3. How do you see your identity evolve in the future?
Full description
The Ordinary Swiss is a 20-minutes short documentary and a series of accompanying photos that highlight the voices and faces of 9 2nd-generation immigrants Muslim women in the context of the medieval town of Sion, Valais, Switzerland – me included. Sion is in the French-speaking side of Switzerland. This autoethnographic documentary presents itself as a multiscreen experience that transcribes the journey of constructed and self-constructed image that these women went on during walking interviews and in their lives in general, focusing on their singular opinions to build a collective narrative.
This project started as an exploration of Swiss national identity and its public spaces, both physical through the analysis of Swiss design and posters, and “mental” through the exploration of the collective imaginary of Switzerland. The self-realisation of the absence of people of colour in the Swiss collective imaginary, the implicit white norm, and the discomfort that comes with it prompted this project. Descendants of immigrants, especially if they are Muslim and women, are invisibilised in the Swiss landscape that still doesn’t recognize people of colour as complete part of their population despite being native of that place and present for decades: they are “the perpetual foreigner”. (HUYNH et al, 2011) They are either not to be seen in mainstream media, therefore completely symbolically annilihated (Gerbner & Gross, 1976, p.182) from the national imaginary or framed as a future threat by a dominating xenophobic climate (ie. “The great Replacement” (Rose, 2022)). This project aims to update the portrait of the ordinary Swiss person as an act of validation and self determination.
I adopted a decolonial approach to representation as it detaches itself from an outdated colonial norm and lens at the root of these harmful narratives, to place plurality and celebration of differences at the center of my re-imagined norm. The current portrait that I dress of these women is one that is joyful in the face of oppression, active, proud, confident, and united. In an attempt to understand our identity and define our position in the Swiss public sphere, our gaze is put at the center and starts the deep work of defining our own reality and change the current status quo through conversation.
I want to “cement” their presence by disrupting the current conservative representation of the Swiss landscape (metaphorically and literally) by making brown and black bodies the face of ‘Swiss-ness’ through the process of reappropriating and subverting strong national element as the Swiss landscape 🏔 , the flag and foundational myths (ie. Heidi).
The primary audience of The Ordinary Swiss is racialised Swiss descendant of immigrants as my main goal was to comfort and empower them by providing them an authentic representation that I have also yearned for years. I hope that by taking over the public spaces – both physical and the collective imaginary – this project will eventually shift the culture in Switzerland, but for now my priority is to change MY Switzerland. I want them to realise that they don’t have to compromise their identity – they can be black, brown, Muslim and Swiss unapologetically.
HUYNH, Q.-L., DEVOS, T. and SMALARZ, L. (2011) ‘Perpetual foreigner in one’s own land: Potential implications for identity and psychological adjustment’, Journal of social and clinical psychology, 30(2), pp. 133–162.
Rose, S. (2022) ‘A deadly ideology: how the “great replacement theory” went mainstream’, The Guardian, 8 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/08/adeadly-ideology-how-the-great-replacement-theory-went-mainstream (Accessed: 13 March 2024).