Schwizerdütsch for beginners

[ 2012 ] transformed medical optometric box

Coming from Olten, my family used to speak Swiss German. After they moved to Brussels, they naturally switched to French, but the older generation still understands - and sometimes speaks - Schwizerdütsch.

I was only used to hear this language regularly, not to speak it. But when I came to Stein am Rhein for my first artist residence in 2012, I needed to interact with people that, for the great majority, were able to speak or understand Swiss German (only). Making the first contacts, having conversations with journalists was a real challenge; I was like a pantomim.

This piece is a kind of humoristic reaction of my observations in the Northern part of Switzerland. I rapidly noticed that, like in Germany, gothic fonts still remained popular. I found it quite interesting to realize that Switzerland actually invented, through the long graphic experiments of Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in the late fifties, a legendary font, sans serif, the Helvetica, reputed to be the most readable one. I wondered about the strong attachment to gothic letter type...