Swiss Ocean Services

Raphaela von Weichs discusses her provenance research on musical instruments for the exhibition ‘Afrosonica – soundscapes’ (2025) at the Geneva Museum of Ethnography (MEG). The conversation explores the “biographies” of objects, how they were collected, often through missionary strategies or scientific missions, and the colonial ideologies that facilitated their acquisition for Switzerland. By examining musical instruments such as a lamellophone collected by missionary François Coillard in what is today Zimbabwe, the podcast explores Switzerland’s role as a producer of colonial knowledge on sound and soundscapes in Africa. It thereby questions a racialized evolutionist classification systems of musical instruments developed in the early 20th century. The discussion shifts towards the profound ethical implications of this history, ranging from the disturbing collection of human remains for anthropometric data to the current pressing demands for restitution. Raphaela von Weichs emphasizes that listening is not merely a sonic act but an interior process that connects listeners to the emotions and responsibilities of the past.

Artist and researcher Denise Bertschi shares audio excerpts from her work on Swiss involvement in colonialism and commodity trading. The video Helvécia, Brazil (2017) retraces stories of enslavement and colonial violence on Swiss-owned coffee plantations in northeastern Brazil in the 19th century. Confidential (2018) engages with the gold trade between Switzerland and South Africa during the years of apartheid. Bertschi reflects on the sonic dimension of her approach and on the importance of oral history in countering hegemonic narratives and archival silences. With State Fiction, Neutral Only in the Outside (2021), she considers the aporia of a “neutral ear,” advocating for a reformulation of Swiss neutrality and a politics of reparation. Denise Bertschi (born 1983 in Aarau, Switzerland) is an artist and researcher at the intersection of visual culture, history, and architecture. She critically investigates archives, landscapes, and the built environment on their colonial traces related to Switzerland’s extra-european expansion. Her research unfolds in installations, publications, or films and raises questions around cultural myths such as Swiss neutrality or coloniality, and their longue durée into present environmental crises. Denise Bertschi holds a PhD from the Arts of Sciences Laboratory at the Department of Architecture at EPFL Lausanne. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (FR), Swiss National Museum Zurich (CH), Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH), Swiss Art Awards (CH), Artsonje Center Seoul (KR), Artivist Johannesburg (ZA), and LACA Los Angeles (US).

This new series begins with a striking moment in Switzerland’s sonic history. For the 1964 Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne, composer Rolph Liebermann unveiled Symphonie Les Échanges — an extraordinary orchestra of 156 automated office machines. Typewriters clattered, calculating machines whirred, cash registers chimed, teleprinters clicked, horns blared, and telephone sets rang in precise coordination. Conceived as a celebration of Swiss trade, banking, and logistics on a global scale, the piece reflected the nation’s ambition to present itself as modern, forward-looking, and powered by technological innovation. Gilles Aubry invites cultural anthropologist Patricia Jäggi to a listening session that weaves together sound, national identity, race, and technology — opening new ground for future conversations on “Sonic Swissness” as part of this series.