The number of selflessly committed people has remained constant in Switzerland over the last 20 years.
Six out of ten people do voluntary work in Switzerland. Special attention is paid to this commitment on Saturday, International Volunteer Day.
The aim of this day is to highlight voluntary work, as Benevol, one of Switzerland’s many voluntary organisations, has written on its website. Voluntary workers are rarely in the limelight, but their commitment is essential for social integration, economic growth, cultural life and the functioning of democracy, according to Benevol.
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) also welcomed this commitment on Twitter on Saturday. “We say THANK YOU! To all those who are committed to their neighbours, families, senior citizens and young people. Your commitment is worth its weight in gold. Let us continue to show solidarity”, he wrote.
On behalf of 28 organisations, the Swiss Red Cross presented a national manifesto for volunteering to parliament on 17 November. The text calls for more promotion and recognition of voluntary work.
650 million working hours
According to the Swiss Red Cross, volunteers provide more than 650 million hours of work in Switzerland every year, worth some CHF 34 billion.
According to the Swiss Public Benefit Society (SPSU), the number of people who have made a selfless commitment has remained constant over the past 20 years: 62% of Swiss people aged 15 and over regularly volunteer their time to help others, society or nature.
Play and leisure clubs, cultural associations and social and charitable organisations are popular among volunteers. Men are more present in formal associations, such as sports clubs, while women are more numerous in informal activities, such as self-help.
Some twenty new museums have opened in fifteen years in the canton, few have closed. A vitality that is based on the passion of some, but also on the diversity of the canton.
Sandra Romy of the Musée de l’Absurde in Vevey, welcomes the works of the Bienne artist Laure Jolissaint, who makes her creations on scraps of rotary press paper in her new exhibition, Jeux avec les yeux. Photo: Chantal Dervey
What is the connection between the typewriter, Sherlock Holmes, art brut and basketball? Each of these four statements has its own museum in the canton. And this is just the tip of an iceberg of unsuspected depth. In 2016, the Swiss Museums Association Museums.ch counted one hundred museums in the canton of Vaud, compared with eighty fifteen years ago. This raises questions about their model, their funding and their chances of survival.
“One hundred is enormous, but it’s fairly proportional to the population and the size of the canton,” says Nicole Minder, head of the Service des affaires culturelles (SERAC) of the canton of Vaud. The Swiss figures recently published by the Federal Statistical Office prove her right: the country has 1111 museums for its 8.2 million inhabitants (compared with 778,000 for the canton). According to the head of department, the diversity of the proposals also echoes that of our large territory.
The snag is that, although several museums open every year (and a few less close), the number of visitors does not increase. And although museums are the most visited cultural institutions in Switzerland (72%, including zoos), ahead of musical performances (71%) and monuments and sites (70%), and far ahead of the cinema (66%) and theatre (47%) (FSO 2015 figures), their attendance is necessarily “diluted” by these openings, without their costs being reduced.
Small but strong
The nine cantonal museums, which count their visitors in the tens of thousands, feel this dilution, as do some municipal museums. The new “big” proposals, such as Nest or Chaplin’s World, do not seem to suffer from this, as their attendance figures are so good. This may reassure the future Aquatis or the Lake Geneva Museum and its planned extension.
As for the “small” museums contacted, where visitors number in the hundreds, there is no real change. “In our case, it varies a lot, between 200 and 300 a year,” explains Pierre Deriaz, president of the Musée du Vieux-Baulmes for the past twenty years. At 5 francs a ticket, you can understand why the budget is tight and why the dues of the hundred or so members are vital. When asked about the voluntary work of the committee, which plays the role of tour guide, Pierre Deriaz burst out laughing: “That, in any case!”. Before changing his mind: “Our curator receives a small salary, which the rent of 700 francs for a dilapidated flat in the museum house enables us to pay him.
At the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Lucens, the committee also works on a voluntary basis, as do almost 40% of the museum staff in Switzerland (a total of 19,500 in 2014). “We pay the guides and the caretaker, thanks to the admissions (editor’s note: 962 in 2016) and the one-off events that we organise,” explains curator and vice-president Vincent Delay. Despite renewed interest in the Conan Doyle character, linked to recent games, films and series, which has boosted attendance for the past six years, the 2016 financial year ended with a deficit of 1,600 francs. “It is in fact a decrease in capital…” says Vincent Delay. Delay insists that in order to get by and not nibble away at its savings, the museum must create events, temporary exhibitions and attract sponsors.
Created in 1943 for the Vieux-Baulmes and in 1966 for the Sherlock, the two museums have had their ups and downs but have never closed down. The support of the Commune in both cases (punctual for the first, free premises for the other) but also the vitality of those who work to make the places exist explain this. In Baulmes, Pierre Deriaz is delighted to be able to hand over the baton to the next generation of young inhabitants of the village. And, in Lucens, Vincent Delay, also president of the Société holmésienne de Suisse romande, insists on the dynamism instilled by these organisations. As a nod to his study character, he reminds us that the Pipe Museum in Lausanne was not so lucky: “It closed down when its owner died…”.
Also in Lausanne, the Shoe Museum also relies on its founders, Marquita and Serge Volken. Established in Le Rôtillon, the shoemakers’ quarter, for fourteen years now, it opens every first weekend of the month in the afternoon “and 24 hours a day if you look from outside”, smiles Marquita Volken. The curators have decided not to charge an entrance fee. “With the entertainment tax, we would have had to hire a trustee for the management. With 1,000 visitors a year, we can’t afford it.”
The very small institution (12 m2 + 1.5 m2 showcase for temporary exhibitions), which presents rigorous copies of leather shoes from prehistoric times to the 19th century, has never obtained any support from the City, even though it has requested it twice. “The aim of archaeology is not to make money,” philosopher Marquita Volken said. Luckily our rent is low and we sometimes receive some surprising donations from visitors.” In Vevey, Sandra Romy also relies on donations from visitors, who are invited to pay a free “outing”. Thanks to this, the curator of the Museum of the Absurd (also 12 m2!), one of the newest of the small museums, is able to pay for the artists she exhibits.
Support from the authorities?
To launch her museum, first in Biel, Sandra Romy organised a crowdfunding campaign, the 9600 francs of which enabled her to pay a year’s rent. But her two requests to the City only resulted in a modest 300 francs for a vernissage… She expects her recent move to Vevey to be a nice improvement. “Better situated, better publicised, the museum should attract more than the 450 visitors to Biel,” the curator hopes. The Ville d’Images also supported the launch of the structure with a subsidy of 5,000 francs. The Canton has also put its hand in the purse and paid a start-up grant of 4,000 francs.
This support is not engraved in marble. As far as the Canton is concerned, they can be granted on a case-by-case basis. “Our various commissions can provide one-off support for cultural mediation activities or projects such as an artist’s catalogue,” explains Nicole Minder. But the law on movable and intangible heritage (LPMI) clearly focuses on the nine cantonal institutions”. The head of SERAC believes that not everything can be put into museums. All the more so as the 21st century offers new forms of heritage. We will have to make choices about what we want to preserve.”
BeauxArts Magazine (In French) Inès Boittiaux, Florelle Guillaume 25 November 2020
Do you miss museums? Interactive timeline, virtual reality experience, 360° tour… Many institutions around the world have set up virtual tour systems that allow you to explore their collections without moving an iota. From Figueras to Amsterdam via Roubaix, here is our top 15 most successful experiences!
A virtual journey through time (over two million years) and across the five continents is what the “museum of the world”, initiated by the British Museum and the Google Cultural Institute, promises. The site, conceived as a long chronological frieze, offers a fascinating plunge into the history of humanity and the collections of the British institution (which contains some seven million objects!). On the frieze, each point, whose colour varies according to geographical location, refers to a detailed record of the work. The little extra? While it is easy to get lost in this galaxy of dots, it is possible to highlight, on the frieze, only one continent or one theme (among art and design, life and death, power and identity, religion and belief, trade and conflict). There is currently no French version of the site. To fully appreciate the experience, mastering the language of Shakespeare is essential!
AR-Lumen is the collaboration between designer Tom Hebrard and artist Paul Vivien. Accustomed to new technologies and monumental projections-mapping, they want to take the opposite side of a “race for innovation” that is hitting the art and design sectors. Forgetting software, energy-consuming video projectors and nights spent in front of their (soon to be obsolete) 2018 computers, they are concentrating on low-tech, recovery and diversion.
They are hacking into old school overhead projectors (those with layers), transforming their optics to increase their power tenfold, while reducing their energy consumption thanks to an optimised LED. Using a solar-powered car battery, the system is mobile and energy self-sufficient. Paul & Tom use a variety of DIY techniques to create mechanics and layers on which they paint, engrave and sculpt visuals to be projected onto the facades of castles or buildings, while playing with their relief. In this way, they apply the methods of digital video-mapping, but in the form of analogue projection.
The story tells the visions of the witch AR-Lumen: an uncertain future for humanity, where resources are exhausted, but where a people has managed to find the solution to its salvation, through degrowth, recycling and exchange. We see methods for transforming waste, inventions and machines, some of which are drawn by the children and adults who took part in a workshop the afternoon before the show. This time of convivial exchange is important, creating a link between the show and the audience, showing that this technology is much more accessible and sustainable than the digital whole.
The project is in development, the last stage of creation at the eco-responsible festival La P’art Belle, in Sarzeau on 10.08.2019 and at the Aurillac festival on 25.08.2019.
FREE THE MUSEUM is an initiative to activate the “museum experience” in the world around us, transforming everyday places into sites of engagement, reflection, healing, activism, and informal learning. It is a CALL TO ACTION aimed at equipping museum practitioners with the resources needed to apply their skills, knowledge and creativity to different facets of public space.
What is Free the Museum?
2020 is a year of transitions – for museums, museum professionals, and the people we serve. There is no turning back, and no one clear path forward. Now is the perfect time to take a wide angle view of the future: to experiment, iterate, and reevaluate.
Free the Museum is a movement to embrace these turbulent times by activating the “museum experience” in the world around us.
Free the Museum is a call to action for museum practitioners to transform everyday places into sites of learning, joy, reflection, and healing.
Free the Museum is a way to discover new paths forward, imagining a museum model that is more inclusive and equitable, more responsive and relevant to the community in which it sits.
Free the Museum is your chance to “hack the world”, repurposing everyday places as platforms for meaning and expression, highlighting the stories they have to tell.
Delivery drones, intelligent sensors, Industry 4.0 – for several decades now, robotics has gradually taken hold in our lives and has turned our daily lives upside down. In this process, design plays a special role, as it is designers who design the interfaces between humans and machines.
The exhibition Hello, Robot. Design between human and machine presents an unprecedented insight into the recent boom in robotics. It includes more than 200 objects from the fields of design and art – robots used in the home, care and industry, video games, multimedia installations as well as examples from film and literature. Showing the multiplicity of forms that robotics takes today, the exhibition also opens up the debate on the ethical, social and political issues raised by the increasing use of these technological innovations.
Hello, Robot addresses the theme in four chapters: “Science and fiction”, “Programmed for work”, “Friend and helper” and “A total fusion”. It is as much about the fantasy of creating artificial creatures as it is about robots in popular culture. In the world of work, in which robots are particularly present, visitors will encounter both classic industrial robots and artistic installations that question the limits between work that can be automated and the – especially creative – tasks of humans. Similarly, in everyday life, the use of robots is becoming increasingly intimate – between digital friends and cybersex. The installation of sensors and the development of intelligent cities also point to a future fusion with machines.
The science and history museums of the Palais de Rumine are planning a new joint and interdisciplinary exhibition. How do you define what is “exotic”, in Switzerland or elsewhere? This changing notion still conditions our way of looking at the world today.
Exotic? is the result of a research project led by Professor Noémie Etienne (University of Bern). In line with the work that critically addresses Swiss history, the exhibition will examine the relationship between Switzerland and foreign countries during the Enlightenment, but will also provide a link to the 21st century and an understanding of the world views or clichés that arise from them.
In view of the subject matter, which is sometimes sensitive, numerous mediation activities, as well as artistic installations or partnerships with other cultural institutions will accompany Exotic? which is intended to be a space for reflection on Switzerland’s place in history and in the world.
This project aims to highlight the richness of Hermès’ creative processes surrounding the world of silk. The spectator is invited to discover the different facets of this product through several playful experiences in store, which include the main steps in the creation of the Hermès squares, which offer a a surprising encounter with the world of silk. This installation offers the customer a new perspective on the traditional square Hermès which actually hides a large number of surprises, that the customer is invited to discover through several interactive steps.
