Ruth Erdt: K12 Schwamendingen

Schwamendingen in Zürich, like Geneva’s Meyrin or Bern’s Bümpliz-Bethlehem, is one of Switzerland’s legendary suburbs. Located at the northern end of Zürich, it was incorporated into the city of Zürich in 1934 and designated “District 12” (K12) in 1971. The district lies under the southern flight path of Zürich’s nearby Kloten Airport and is bisected by the A1 motorway, on which 120,000 vehicles travel every day.

When she moved to Schwamendingen in the early 1990s, Ruth Erdt began to photograph her neighbourhood. As she recounts, it was a strange place for her at first, almost beyond the city, not really respected—many looked at it askance. “In my photos, I always tried to make Schwamendingen look as if the pictures could be anywhere—in Europe, in the world, but not in Zürich, not in Switzerland. Later, I began to take more specific photographs. Still with the aim of refusing any kind of categorisation, whether in terms of time or location. Themes were mainly gardens, the forest, demolished buildings, people and the Chilbi.” Then, however, she observed how her son’s generation claimed the place for themselves, turned prejudice into pride and celebrated K12 in music, tags and gesture. When Erdt’s collaboration with the city of Zürich Working Group on Art in Public Spaces (AG KiöR) began around 2012, she broadened her focus. The aim was to establish a dialogue by means of carefully crafted series: on the one hand a dialogue with the neighbourhood, but also with comparable outlying districts in European cities when it comes to gentrification, identity or profound upheavals caused by infrastructure projects.

Since then, Erdt has taken over 60,000 pictures, around 5,000 of which can be seen at Kunsthalle Zürich, many of them for the first time. Erdt’s commitment has resulted in K12 Schwamendingen, an extended study of a particular place and an exemplary investigation of one subject using the tools of art. It is also a tribute to the people who live and work here, the students, workers, creatives and those left behind, pensioners, children and dogs, the people who only live here for a short time—and those who will never move away. And, last but not least, it is a study in the potential of photography and how it is presented. Thus this exhibition explores different media: framed photography, photography as art, photography as a poster, as a slideshow, as a document, as a curtain and a banner, as disposable and Instagram, as wallpaper and photography as a means to literally and figuratively take one’s picture.

The exhibition celebrates Schwamendingen as an extraordinarily ordinary place. It is an homage to an apparent normality that does not exist without its antithesis, drama. It is no coincidence that the environmentally destructive motorway route keeps cropping up—and the massive construction project associated with it: a 450 million-worth enclosure of the motorway that the population lobbied for over decades. This started in March 2019, will be completed this year and cover 950 metres of motorway. A park will be built on top of the enclosed section, a High Line to reconnect previously divided neighbourhoods.

The exhibition is accompanied by the 900-page publication K12—Schwamendingen, ein Randbezirk von Zürich, published by Steidl Verlag, with over 600 illustrations and contributions by Philipp Klaus, Urs Stahel and the artist herself, among others.

Our thanks go to Pro Helvetia—Swiss Arts Council, Canton of Zürich Department of Culture/Swisslos, Stiftung Ema und Curt Burgauer, Baugenossenschaft Süd-Ost Zürich.

The exhibition K12—Schwamendingen was realised with the support of the City of Zürich, Art in Public Space (KiöR). It was created as part of the KiöR’s multi-year project “Lokaltermin Schwamendingen”.