Mount of India (2007)
CH 2007 / Mini-DV / 31 minutes / DVD-Edition / stereo / coulour / Swiss Dialect, English
Concept, camera, sound and editing
Flavia Caviezel
Realization DVD
Peter Spillmann, Flavia Caviezel
Production
Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK / K3000
Protagonists
Gabriela Faber, Team Photostudio Titlis (Tony & Fränzi Camenzind, Romiglia Eckert, Pia Infanger, Verena Mathis), Indian travellers (including J. Poormina, P.S. Sridhara Krishnan, Vinod & Pawan Ajmera, Priti & Dhruv Gokani, Saloni S. Jain)
Exhibitions
Kunstpanorama/Kunsthalle Luzern 2008; Gallery Baviera Zurich 2008; Les Routiers Zurich 2010; Malzfabrik Berlin 2011, Kunsthaus Deutschvilla Strobl (A) 2011, Helmhaus 2012.
Synopsis
In 2006, a total of 284,000 Indian travellers visited Switzerland, around 45,000 of them visited the Titlis in Engelberg. As a travel destination, Switzerland is not new for the Indian upper class. Indian people have been travelling here regularly since independence in 1947. What is new, however, is the massive growth in the 1990s. In the brochures of Indian tour operators, the Titlis is called the ‚Mount of India’ and, like Switzerland in general, is praised as a symbol of natural beauty with snow-covered mountains, pastoral landscapes, clear water and pure air.
The Photostudio Titlis in the mountain station represents a ‚microcosm’, where the dynamics of intercultural negotiation processes can be observed in many different ways: Tourists and employees meet up very closely when guests are equipped with alpine clothing and various accessories for photography in front of a Titlis wallpaper. During these preparations for the (self-)staging, images of the other and of oneself are negotiated.
The photosetting reflects imaginations of rural alpine life, formed by various set pieces (clothes, accessories) and arranged in an artificial landscape represented by a mountain that stands for the alpine region - the Titlis as a landscape of imagination and longing.
Mount of India has been realized in the context of the research project Und plötzlich China! Das Setting “Schweiz” im globalisierten Tourismus.
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