The Others Have Arrived Safely

The exhibition “…The others have arrived safely” casts a glance at artistic strategies for dealing with the politics of borders and the construction of history.

The image of the “others”, who “have arrived safely”, addresses in multiple ways the precarious conclusion of a journey: to the uncertainty of whether it is at all possible to arrive safely. Yet the title also refers to mechanisms of decision-making about which people or goods cross borders, with permission, or not. The border itself, so the thesis goes, organizes inclusions as well as exclusions, not only geographically, but also with regard to political and social rights. Borders thus have a retroactive effect on lived realities, even years and decades later.
Against the backdrop of debates in 2015 surrounding the politics of history/memory in Switzerland, the exhibition shows artistic works that deal critically with the politics of memory, especially with regard to national politics, and border and immigration policies. They reflect on the economical, social and technological power mechanisms that first enable a “knowledge” of the border and its mediation in (history political) imagineering.
In doing so, they touch upon interests and conflicts that are part of every negotiation about history, and some actively engage in those politics of history.