Download - Themed Dossier Zurich
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Why a Themed Dossier?This dossier on one single topic is intended to inspire journalists to discover Zurich and the many stories it
has to tell. It includes profiles of people who shape our town in diverse ways, each of whom shares insights
into their lives and working environments. These people come in as many different facets as the city itself.
Their stories give ideas to everyone who would like to visit Zurich and pursue their own research in greater
depth. Journalists and editorial departments are welcome to use these texts and photos for free (source:
Zürich Tourism). Additional photos are available for downloading at zuerich.com/themeddossier
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Cabaret Voltaire: the birthplace of Dada
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Zurich is a passionate city, but if to see this you
have to look behind the magnificent facades of the
banks on Paradeplatz or behind the pretty boutiques
lining the Bahnhofstrasse. Without the dedication of
the Zurich guilds and without the idealism instilled
by the Reformation, Zurich
would never have become
the important financial and
business metropolis it is today.
However, Zurich’s passion has
not just given rise to a hard-
working mentality and wealth,
but also to art and culture.
Zurich is the birthplace of the
ironic, wild and polemic art
movement known as Dada,
which in 1916 went on to
conquer art metropolises such
as Paris, Hamburg and New York from its base
here. With their abstract collages, multilingual sound
poems, performances and marketing campaigns,
the Dadaists brought unrest and turmoil to placid
Zurich in the early part of the 20th century. However,
they also paved the way for the surrealists, cubists
and constructivists.
Our six portraits show that Zurich is still very much
a source of creative ideas
and inspiration. Our artists
spray graffiti artworks with
the aim of raising awareness
of underground culture; they
create stages on a scale of
1: 50, the originals of which
enchant the great stages of the
world; they write stories that
make children’s eyes light up;
they communicate by means
of laser beams, program digital
works of art, and decide which
international bands and artists
should perform at the city’s largest open-air festival.
Zurich has therefore lost nothing of its artistic passion.
Pay us a visit and allow yourself to be inspired.
Preface
Zurich’s Passions
Martin Sturzenegger, CEO Zürich Tourism
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Pages 6 – 9
Dadaistic Communication | Johannes Gees
Pages 10 – 13
Creator of Fantastic Worlds | Simeon Meier
Pages 14 – 17
Graffiti is Not Evil | Laurence Celine Landert
Themed Dossier Zurich |Swiss Art – Pure Passion
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Pages 22 – 25
The Storyteller | Andri Krämer
Pages 18 – 21
A Good Ear for Music | Marion Meier
Pages 26 – 29
The Art of the Future | MuDA
Pages 30 – 35
Information, Map, Imprint
ZÜRICHSEE
ZÜRICH WEST
ENGESEEFELD
NIEDERDORF
ZÜRICH NORD
LIMMAT
SIHL
INNENSTADT
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Dadaistic Communication | Johannes Gees
Johannes Gees is known in Zurich as the founder of the successful crowdfunding platform
wemakeit. In addition, as a Dadaistic artist he has caused a stir with provocative installations and
performances.
If local artists, designers or graphic designers need some seed capital to get a creative idea off the ground,
they may well approach the Zurich-based crowdfunding platform wemakeit. wemakeit was founded by
artist Johannes Gees, who is based in the heart of the once disreputable Langstrasse. In the entrance of
his business premises, guests are greeted by pictures of light and laser installations, portraits of Gees in
action, and the “Dada Bank” – a wheel to which various amounts of money are attached. When someone
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submits a Dada project to wemakeit, the wheel
decides the amount with which the Dada 100
association will support this enterprise.
The Dada art movement, which was founded
in Zurich, and Johannes Gees are old friends:
since his youth, the creative has encountered the
Dadaists and their art over and over again, and he
often draws inspiration from them. “Dada was my
first big love and continues to influence me to this
day. Nobody experimented with the various means
of communication and the possibilities offered by
technology as skillfully
as the Dadaists,” he
explains. The Dadaists
were – just like Gees –
open to all kinds of tools
and style forms. They were interested in media and
communication, worked on a global scale, loved
to provoke, and were the precursors to other art
genres, in particular surrealism. Johannes Gees,
too, is a media-oriented, inquisitive and provocative
all-around talent, who plays a pioneering role: in
1999, together with the artist group c.a.l.c., he was
one of the first people – “in those days, the Internet
was completely new and unadulterated” – to create
a kind of social medium: with communimage.
Online, naturally. communimage enables people all
over the world to upload pictures onto a common
platform and to communicate with each other.
During the 2001 World Economic Forum in Davos,
Gees installed a laser projector in the apartment
of the local pastor, linked it up with the Internet,
and projected messages from people all over the
world onto the snow-covered mountain slopes.
An absolute sensation – for that year, Davos was
completely sealed off from the outside world for fear
of demonstrations and riots, and Gees’ laser beams
were suddenly the only means of communication
between politicians and the world population. In
2003, Gees repeated this operation on an even
larger scale: in four continents, on four projection
surfaces in New York, Bombay, Rio de Janeiro and
Geneva. In this way, a good 10,000 messages
were projected in the course of 24 hours. What will
he come up with next?
Johannes Gees provokes
in a manner that is in
no way inferior to the
Dadaists. He is a communicator and innovator,
and is passionate about linking people all over
the globe. “I love the do-it-yourself approach and
the transboundary collaboration between people,”
he explains. He is referring to wemakeit – but the
statement is equally true of his own artistic creativity.
CONTACT
Johannes Gees
wemakeit.ch GmbH
Schöneggstrasse 5
CH-8004 Zürich
wemakeit.com
johannesgees.com
“I love the do-it-yourself approach and the
transboundary collaboration between people.”
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Creator of Fantastic Worlds | Simeon Meier
Simeon Meier is a stage designer of international repute. Besides designing sets for the
Schauspielhaus Zurich and the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, he creates fantastic worlds in
particular for German stages.
In his studio opposite Wipkingen train station, in the north-west part of the city, little points towards Simeon
Meier’s creative activity. A large table, a few books, and numerous boxes rowed up along the wall. “Well,
my creativity can be seen on the theater stages in Zurich, Cologne or Dresden,” he says, “I can only
show you a few models here.” Which he then promptly does. He roams around his workshop, looks in a
crate here, opens a box there, then suddenly stands on the table and reaches up for a long cardboard
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package. From this he conjures up a forest to the
scale of 1: 50, which he recently created for the
production of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Troilus and
Cressida” in Cologne. He enthusiastically tells of
how this set came into being, from the original
idea to discussions with stage director Rafael
Sanchez, of the lighting testing together with the
actors, and above all
of the rotating stage,
which transformed
a single set into four
different scenes. While
the stage revolves, the
protagonists walk alongside, with the result that
they look as if they are on a long journey.
Simeon Meier discovered his fascination for rooms
and pictures at an early stage. As a child, he was
allowed to watch friends of his parents – who
were decorators – at work: “That’s where I first got
the bug,” he says, his eyes shining. After leaving
school, he did an apprenticeship as decorator at
the tradition-steeped department store Jelmoli, in
Zurich. “That was fantastic,” he recalls. “In those
days I was able to create entire story-based worlds
in the display windows.” Soon afterwards, he was
already working as an assistant to the set designer
at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, which allowed him
to quickly make contacts within the theater world.
It is extremely important for a set designer to know
various producers and dramaturges, for they hire
the set designers they best like working with to
create their production sets. In earlier times, a set
designer was permanently employed at a theater
or opera house and was, so to speak, the in-house
set designer. Nowadays, a renowned designer
travels all over the world partly because now the
distances are easier to cover, but also because the
installations of well-known set designers are highly
sought after by cultural institutions throughout the
globe. In this way, Simeon, too, has succeeded
in making a name for
himself and is equally
in demand in Cologne
and Dresden as in his
home city of Zurich.
When asked which
stage he would particularly like to work on, he
replies, “Of course, the lakeside stage at the
Bregenzer Festspiele would be a lifelong dream.”
However, the real art is in getting the very best
out of the materials and options available. “Many
establishments have, apart from a large budget, a
workshop employing twenty carpenters, painters
and craftspeople. Others have just two carpenters.
We have to be able to live with that too. It’s all a
matter of creativity.”
CONTACT
Simeon Meier
Dammstrasse 43/44
CH-8037 Zürich
simeonmeier.com
“Of course, the lakeside stage at the Bregenzer Festspiele would be a
lifelong dream.”
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Graffiti is Not Evil | Laurence Celine Landert
Laurence is a woman of many talents. She sings in her own band as well as in a big band, and also
works as interior designer at the Kanzlei Club, snowboarding instructor, barmaid, and teacher of
the visual arts. But her greatest passion is graffiti art.
It is cold on this spring day at the “Letten.” In summer, the place is full of sun worshippers, but today
Laurence is alone. Armed with a few aerosol cans and a protective mask, she starts “work”: she is a graffiti
sprayer. “Graffiti has been part of my life since I was 13 years old,” recalls the vivacious Laurence Celine
Landert, as she explains how she came to be involved in graffiti-spraying – really more of a male domain.
“I was particularly inspired by the hip-hop culture,” she says.
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A graduate of the Zurich University of the Arts –
she alternately studied classic, jazz and pop music
before completing her studies in Art Education –
Laurence feels it is important to raise awareness
for graffiti-spraying.
Early in her career, she led workshops for various
youth projects in Zurich, whereby “many of the
participants were not much younger than myself,”
she laughs. She still organizes these workshops, but
her clientele now includes
schools and companies.
“If the customer gives me
a surface, I can spray at
any time of day and under
all kinds of conditions,”
she says self-assuredly.
The customer is free to decide whether they and
their friends, employees or students would like
to try their hand at spraying themselves or if they
prefer Laurence to create something while she
explains the history of graffiti. “It’s up to the client
where the focus lies – on the final result or on the
fun in achieving it. I enjoy both. It’s always exciting to
observe the fascination that an aerosol can evokes
among children, young people and adults alike,”
she grins. “Graffiti still has a reputation of being
something illegal. But in the meantime street artists
such as Banksy have advanced from being public
enemy number 1 to being regarded as real heroes
of the art scene.” She reflects for a moment and
adds, “Many people say that graffiti is vandalism
or destruction. I believe that destruction leads to
creation. Nature shows us this every day.”
The young teacher and artist earns some extra
cash with commissioned works. Mostly she
decorates walls or rooms; for the SUP ART project
she even adorned surfboards with her designs. “By
the way, the boards are still for sale,” she laughs.
Large companies – such as the supermarket
chain Migros – are also among her clientele.
She negotiates prices personally and individually
with each customer, according to the size of the
available surface, the complexity of the design
and the amount of paint
required. She has
just one condition for
commissioned works:
“I won’t allow my style
to be compromised. If
somebody commissions
me to create a graffiti mural, they get a ‘Laurence.’
That means that if they want a Minnie Mouse,
that’s what they’ll get. But it lies within my artistic
discretion whether or not it is depicted hanging
from noose,” she says with a grin.
CONTACT
Laurence Celine Landert
Witikonerstrasse 397
CH-8053 Zürich
laurenceceline7.wix.com/laurenceceline
“Many people say that graffiti is vandalism or destruction. I believe
that destruction leads to creation. Nature shows us
this every day.”
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A Good Ear for Music | Marion Meier
Marion Meier is responsible for the program of the Zürich Openair. For this job, she needs nerves
of steel, organizational talent and a penchant for piecing together jigsaw puzzles.
In summer, Zurich is taken over by very special rhythmic sounds: the Zürich Openair attracts over 45,000
music fans to the trendy city on the lake every year. And when the last sunrays caress the faces of the
dancing crowds, she focuses her full attention on the main stage of the festival, where the high-flyers of
the indie pop rock scene, The xx, are delighting their audience. At this moment, Marion Meier knows that
she has done everything right.
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The fledgling Zürich Openair has already firmly
established itself in the city on the Limmat. Although
still only in its teething stages compared to other
Swiss festivals, in the last five years a number of
big names from the international music scene
such as Paul Kalkbrenner, The Prodigy, Kraftwerk,
Seeed and The Kooks have taken to the stage near
Zurich Airport. Marion Meier has been instrumental
in this success. She is
the Festival’s program
director and has the last
say when it comes to
the music. “The line-up is of key importance for
us. Other open-air festivals have regular fans who
come anyway. Of course, the music also plays a
central role here, but these people would probably
also go to the festival even if no big headliners were
playing. We don’t yet enjoy that luxury,” Marion
Meier explains.
The former advertising professional came to work
for the Zürich Openair by a roundabout route. After
she had been in charge of the music program at the
Zurich clubs Rohstofflager and Komplex 457, she
was offered the job at the Zürich Openair. “I always
thought that it must be thrilling, but at the same
time difficult, to compile a program for an open-air
festival. And now here I am doing exactly that!” she
laughs, and continues, “Putting together a line-up
is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. You can
really want one particular band, but if the group
isn’t in Europe, or the Zürich Openair doesn’t fit into
their route schedule, you can do what you like but
you won’t get anywhere. Even a high fee doesn’t
help.” As program director, Marion Meier needs
to be extremely flexible. Rescheduling, seeking
alternatives and checking out various options are
all part of her daily challenges.
Meier is proud of the fact that the program of the
Zürich Openair is perfectly suited to the city on the
Limmat. “It is urban, trendy and very international,
just like Zurich,” she says.
There are a noticeably
high number of electronic
bands that make their
way to Zurich every year, but indie and rock bands
like performing here too. “And anyhow, what other
open-air festival has its own airport?” Meier asks
with a grin. The close vicinity of the airport is indeed
a plus point – not only for the visitors, but for the
bands too. Meier is convinced that, for instance,
Nine Inch Nails would not have come to Zurich if
immediately after their gig they had not been able to
board a plane to America, where their next concert
was awaiting them. Traveling to the Zürich Openair
is ideal in other ways too: trams and buses operate
until the early hours of the morning, and during
the day visitors can spend some time shopping or
sightseeing in the city.
CONTACT
Marion Meier
ZO Festival AG
Binzstrasse 39
CH-8045 Zürich
zurichopenair.ch
“And anyhow, what other open-air festival has
its own airport?”
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The Storyteller | Andri Krämer
Andri Krämer writes, produces and sells children’s stories under his alter ego, “Gschichtefritz” –
free of charge or at the discretion of the person ordering them.
Andri Krämer is sitting in one of his favorite locales working on a new story featuring Beni the robot.
Together with two children, Beni experiences countless adventures and is the main character in a whole
series of audio stories that Andri Krämer has been producing over the last seven years. Is the plot with a
house fire not rather brutal for young listeners? He will have to ask his own children later. For storyteller
Andri Krämer is father of three and a qualified IT specialist. However, when he is not working as a software
developer, he can usually be found sitting – as on this sunny morning – in a café or in his recording studio.
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Sitting there in his bright orange, ruched shirt
and beret, Andri Krämer looks like a troubadour.
“That’s my alter ego, ‘Gschichtefritz’,” he explains.
On assuming this role, he becomes a teller of
children’s stories and can distance himself from
his real identity. “I need to detach myself from my
everyday life in order for
my creativity to unfold,”
he says. “At home, I’m
a father and husband,
at work I’m Andri the IT
specialist, and otherwise I’m ‘Gschichtefritz.’”
The idea of “Gschichtefritz” was born from necessity.
“I had my own band for a long time and was always
making music,” he explained. However, after the
birth of his first child, it became increasingly difficult
to pursue this pastime. “I would have missed such
a lot due to rehearsals and concerts,” he says. And
so he decided instead of music to write and record
his own children’s stories, complete with songs,
and to make them available to the widest audience
possible at the lowest financial risk. To do this, Andri
had to reduce the production costs to a minimum:
on his recordings, listeners do not hear the voices
of five different actors, but only Andri speaking in
different voices. “Be-ni the ro-bot al-ways speaks
in the same pitch and rhy-thm – and that can real-
ly get on your nerves,” demonstrates Andri. In
addition, he only produces his CDs to order. Each
customer then has the possibility of requesting a
personal dedication – such as for a godchild or
grandchild. Andri records the personal message
separately and adds it at the beginning of the story.
Probably the most interesting thing about Andri’s
business model is, however, that the customer
determines the price they want to pay for a CD
or MP3 at his own discretion. “Most customers
are generous as they appreciate the fact that I
produce, package and dispatch everything myself.
In this way, through
customers’ generosity a
single parent can order
an audio story without
having to pay for it.”
People can download up to three stories a month
for free or order them on CD. “But unfortunately
after that I have to call a halt, otherwise I would be
out of pocket,” says the good-natured storyteller.
Andri Krämer’s next project is to make his stories
known in Germany and Austria, and he has
recorded special versions in High German, rather
than Swiss dialect. “I can’t wait to see if my stories
also go down well abroad,” he laughs.
CONTACT
Gschichtefritz
Andri Krämer
Rainstrasse 49
CH-8038 Zürich
gschichtefritz.ch
“Be-ni the ro-bot al-ways speaks in the same pitch and rhy-thm – and that can real-ly
get on your nerves.”
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The Art of the Future | MuDA
Caroline Hirt and Christian Etter share a vision: they want to acquaint as wide a public as possible
with the art of the future. At the Museum of Digital Art (MuDA), they show visitors just how artistic
the numbers zero and one can be.
What was originally conceived as a one-room show has within the space of three years developed into a
museum covering 400 square meters (4,300 sq. ft) of floor space: the Museum of Digital Art recently opened
its doors in the trendy Zurich-West quarter. Today this hip district, where in bygone days ship’s engines were
assembled, is home to companies that develop new technologies, the Zurich University of the Arts, modern-
day gastronomic outlets and contemporary architecture. The perfect neighborhood for a digital museum,
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thought Caroline Hirt and Christian Etter, when they
decided to set up their own museum.
Disappointed by many of the local exhibition
concepts, they decided to actively do something
about it instead of simply sitting around complaining.
“We might not be able to show expensive Picassos
or Van Goghs, but we can
work in a cheaper, freer
and more experimental
manner than other
institutions,” say the two
freshly-baked museum
directors and go on to
explain their concept:
“Until now, digital art has always been considered
‘nerdy’ and lacking in universal appeal, but in actual
fact the opposite is true. That’s what we aim to show
at MuDA.”
The fact that digital art does not only have to take
place on a screen and with barely decipherable
codes is clearly demonstrated by MuDA’s first
exhibition, featuring an imposing installation: the now
defunct departure board from Zurich main station,
which was acquired from the Swiss Federal Railways
(SBB). “The board – measuring 13 meters (43ft) long
and 3 meters (10ft) wide – almost completely fills the
room,” laughs Caroline Hirt, “but it’s worth it, for it’s
an absolute gem.” The two Ticino artists, Andreas
Gysin and Sidi Vanetti, programed the board to
display patterns and animations. “It’s a great example
of what our museum is all about, for this kind of art
is something that everyone understands, even if
they have no idea about programing language,”
says Etter. The installation shows the beauty and
sleekness of digital art. As a result, in future the
museum directors will be focusing on works that can
be tangibly experienced. Naturally, other applications
and web designs will be featured too: each exhibition
– between two and four temporary exhibitions are
planned per year – will be
accompanied by a mobile
app, which assumes
MuDA’s virtual role.
The two creatives have
been overwhelmed by
the support and backing
they have received from both private and public
circles: “In purely economic terms, the museum
should not even exist in the first place, but the
interest and support our project has received in
Zurich is enormous. This is one reason why we have
opened our museum here and not somewhere else
in the world.” In future, it is planned that conferences
and inspirational talks on such topics as artificial
intelligence, the right of privacy and data protection,
as well as workshops for children and teachers, will
be held at MuDA. MuDA is an open space where
creativity and technology merge.
CONTACT
MuDA – Museum of Digital Art
Pfingstweidstrasse 101
CH-8005 Zürich
muda.co
“Until now, digital art has always been considered
‘nerdy’ and lacking in universal appeal, but in actual
fact the opposite is true. That’s what we aim to show
at MuDA.”
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View over the city from the Waid quarter
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Further InformationJohannes Gees
communimage.net
Simeon Meier
schauspielkoeln.de
deutschestheater.de
Laurence Celine Landert
facebook.com/laurenceceline7
laurenceceline7.wix.com/laurenceceline
Marion Meier | Zürich Openair
facebook.com/zuerichopenair
twitter.com/zurichopenair
instagram.com/zurichopenair
Andri Krämer | Gschichtefritz
facebook.com/gschichtefritz
Caroline Hirt und Christian Etter | MuDA
facebook.com/mudazurich
twitter.com/oiioiioioiiioio
Andreas Gysin and Sidi Vanetti: gysin-vanetti.com
Christian Etter: etterstudio.com
Caroline Hirt: epicgamejam.com
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Map of Zurich
LAKE ZURICH
ZURICH-WEST
ENGESEEFELD
NIEDERDORF
ZURICH NORTH
LIMMAT
SIHL
CITY CENTER
Andri KrämerGschichtefritzRainstrasse 49CH-8038 Zürich
Laurence Celine LandertWitikonerstrasse 397 CH-8053 Zürich
Marion MeierZO Festival AGBinzstrasse 39CH-8045 Zürich
Caroline Hirt and Christian EtterMuDA – Museum of Digital ArtPfingstweidstrasse 101CH-8005 Zürich
Johannes Gees wemakeit.ch GmbHSchöneggstrasse 5CH-8004 Zürich
Simeon Meier Dammstrasse 43/44CH-8037 Zürich
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Zurich Opera House at Sechseläutenplatz
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Imprint
© 2016 häberlein & mauerer ag for Zürich Tourism
Photos: Adrian Bretscher | Hangar Ent. Group GmbH
Text: Gretta Bott
Graphics: Anita Lutz | Kristin Hoos
CONTACT
International Media Team Zürich Tourism
Phone +41 44 215 40 96 Stampfenbachstrasse 52
[email protected] CH-8006 Zürich
zuerich.com
PRESS CONTACT
Johanna Broese häberlein & mauerer ag
Phone +49 30 726 208 209 Rosenthaler Straße 52
[email protected] D-10178 Berlin
PRESS MATERIAL
Information for media: zuerich.com/media
Image gallery and video material: zuerich.com/images
E-book and press material Themed Dossier: zuerich.com/themeddossier
COPYRIGHT
Page 13 | Stage set: © Tommy Hetzel
Page 21 | Concert Zürich Openair: © Amanda Nikolic
All other images: © Zürich Tourism
