Sus Zwick

Videogenossenschaft and VIA

Basel

Born 1950 in Fribourg. Lives and works in the Basel region. Member of the Videogenossenschaft Basel. Co-founder of VIA AudioVideoFotoKunst. Video and performance artist as part of a duo with Muda Mathis and in the band Les Reines Prochaines.

00:00 Start. 00:21: Growing up at the language frontier. 01:08: About my grandmother in Berlin. 02:23: It is important, that a woman learns a profession. 03:05: My father was a draughtsman. 03:33: As a child, I was outward-looking. 03:55: I become a teacher and study at the Uni / My first demo. 06:20: We founded a commune in Basel and an alternative kindergarten / Large discrepancies. 11:35: Joining the women’s movement. 12:25: I start to photograph / multimedia shows and women’s calendars. 13:35: 1979 – I become a mother / Foundation of the Videogenossenschaft Basel. 15:37: My relation to video technology. 16:27: My first video – Children or not, for whom to decide? 18:31: 1985 – Admission to the Video Programme by René Pulfer, Art School Basel. 19:37: Our group – Muda Mathis, Pipilotti Rist, Käthe Walser, Sus Zwick, Uri Urech, Renatus Zürcher and Omi Scheidenbauer. 22:58: The rest is a risk / Video on an environmental catastrophe in Schweizerhalle, 1986. 26:04: 1988 – Foundation of the Studio Collective VIA AudioVideoFotoKunst. 27:13: Co-production of a video sampler of the Swiss Association of Independent Video / A period of further experiments. 30:36: Band of female authors «Les Reines Prochaines» and VIA’s work up to today. 32:51: A living from art? 34:31: Credits
Commentary

Der Rest ist Risiko

Videogenossenschaft

Basel

1987, realization: Sus Zwick, 28 mins, U-matic low band, color, 7 mins (excerpts), original online: video collection Stadt in Bewegung (Swiss Social Archive and Memoriav)

Documentary about political resistance after the chemical disaster of Basel/Schweizerhalle of 1986. Political actions, hearings, art and poster interventions, protests, etc., express how anxious and voiceless the public felt at the time.

Young woman scientist at an assembly
The mania of men. The trust we have placed in the people in charge in science and politics has turned out to be life threatening. I realize that scientific statements count for nothing anymore if they are used to lie. We cannot trust in science anymore. Statistics can be used to prove anything, depending on the perspective. This hits me especially hard, because I work in science myself, I am a part of this system and participate in the unrelenting struggle for women to find their place in this system, for women with their specific viewpoints, lifestyles, and reasoning to find a legitimate place and to be given their space.

Babette

VIA

Basel

1996, Fränzi Madörin, Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick, toghether with Babette Zaugg, 15 mins, subtitles E/D, U-matic, color, 11 mins (excerpts), orginal can be ordered through www.mathiszwick.ch

A collage of images, conversations, poems, and music. Babette Zaugg talks about her experiences in a war zone. The video juxtaposes war and art, fiction and documentary, facts and fantasy.

Babette Zaugg, aid worker in a war zone
People there are extremely good at keeping it together. They are in the hospital, have lost their child or husband, the second child is without legs, but they keep going, are on the market for seven hours, trying to find something to eat. Everything is in pieces, but they flash a smile and say: I’m doing well, are you well too? And you’ve got some crap stuck in your head why you’re not feeling well, maybe the bread this morning wasn’t quite fresh anymore. I really feel like a wimp. They aren’t heroes, but they are standing on this shaky ground that they still have. And they take one step at a time. I think that’s the big difference between them and myself or the people we have here. We are always doing seventeen things at once.