Year: 2016
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: B]ecause every archive […] is at onceinstitutive and conservative.Revolutionary and traditional.1 In December 1965, the Swiss weekly film newsreel SWN [SCHWEIZER FILMWOCHENSCHAU SFW] featured a peculiar short piece on young Swiss women and men preparing to deploy to development projects all over Africa (no.1192.2).First panning over idyllic impressions of a rural village in Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton in Southern Switzerland, the camera abruptly switches to close-ups of wooden signboards carrying the names of African countries.The brief feature continues to a group of young people seated in an improvised classroom, who are later depicted working with wood, installing lights and electronic switches, fixing pans and kitchen bowls, repairing car engines, and finally preparing dishes from different vegetables, eggs, coconuts and groundnuts.The commentary joins these images in a compelling narrative featuring an introductory puzzle: "Mogheno, in the Maggia Valley, is a typical Ticino village", the voiceover states, "so the door plates featuring names of African countries seem all the more unusual".The riddle is unraveled shortly after: "Here the Swiss Federal Political Department conducts a training for volunteers wanting to join development work in Africa", and the village of Mogheno and the Canton
Source: transcript Verlag eBooks
Author: Samuel Sieber
Language: English
Subfield: Conservation
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4238282979