Colonialism à la Suisse

In 1876, the Belgian King Leopold II invited the European bourgeoisie to Brussels to present his colonial project to them and gain their support for it. Among those present was the Swiss lawyer Gustave Moynier from Geneva.
He was a co-founder of the Institut de Droit International and the International Red Cross ICRC, a member of the Geneva Geographical Society and later Swiss Consul of the Free State of Congo. He campaigned in Switzerland and internationally for the colonial plans of Leopold II. From 1879 to 1894, he was the editor of the colonial propaganda magazine for French-speaking Europe L’Afrique explorée et civilisée and, in his capacity as an expert in international law, was largely responsible for the drafting of international treaties and agreements of the Congo Free State (1885 – 1908).
Other Swiss – historian Patrick Minder estimates their number to be at least 200 – were involved in the establishment of one of the most brutal colonial regimes at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in the service of Belgian King Leopold II in a wide variety of roles.
Thus began the history of colonial entanglement and migration between Switzerland and the DR Congo. Early collections of artefacts and photographs from the DR Congo in numerous Swiss museums and private archives bear witness to this. Many traces can still be found today in family, cultural, economic and political relationships.

Switzerland and Mobutu
Relations between Switzerland and the DR Congo have always been ambivalent, contradictory and guided by particular economic interests. This was particularly evident during and after independence in 1960, for example in the 1970s to 1990s, when Swiss business circles and official politicians were good friends with the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and at the same time politically persecuted people from Zaire (now DR Congo) sought asylum in Switzerland and were forcibly repatriated.

Unknown history
The aim of the interdisciplinary project is to work with artists and academics from Switzerland and the DR Congo to analyse the history of colonial interdependence and migration between Switzerland and the DR Congo, which is still largely unknown today, and to make it visible in an exhibition.

Workshop from 20 – 22 August 2025 at Kin Art Studio, Kinshasa DRC
Artists and scientists from Switzerland and the DR Congo will develop the concept for the exhibition in a three-day workshop from 20 to 22 August 2025. The exhibition will be shown in the DR Congo and in Switzerland.
Participants of the Workshop :
Nicolas-Patience Basabose, multidisciplinary designer
Gaby Fierz, exhibition curator, social anthropologist, and historian
Franziska Jenni, exhibition curator, social anthropologist, art historian
Glodie Misanu, architect and urban planner
Mimi von Moos, artist and director of “artstravers, cultural encounter in Dreyeckland – artistic rhizomes in action,” Basel, Mulhouse, and the “ventre” association, Hegenheim
Yvonne Mpwo, curator, program director of the Congo Biennale 2025
Patrick Mudekereza, writer, curator, and artistic director of the Waza Art Center in Lubumbashi
Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, artist, curator, director of the Kin Art Studio in Kinshasa
Stella N’Djoku, poet, author, translator, and researcher
Lisa N’Pango Zanetti, graduate in political science with a specialization in contemporary history

Ownership
The project is supported by the association YOLDA Unterwegs, Basel, Switzerland in cooperation with the Kin Art Studio, Kinshasa, DRC and the Centre d’art Waza, Lubumbashi, DRC.

Executive team

Gaby Fierz, social anthropologist and historian. From 2000 to 2016, she headed the Education and Mediation department and was an exhibition curator at the Museum der Kulturen Basel, where she was responsible for the “Expeditions” exhibition, among others. Since 2016, she has been a freelance curator, cultural mediator, and lecturer at the University of Education Lucerne since 2016. www.gabyfierz.ch

Franziska Jenni, social anthropologist, art historian and curator of numerous exhibitions at the Museum der Kulturen Basel and as a freelance curator of contemporary African photography. She is also managing director of the Fondation Oumou Dilly and works as a lecturer at the University of Basel.

Patrick Mudekereza, writer and exhibition curator. He is the founder and artistic director of Centre d’art Waza, an independent cultural and art centre in Lubumbashi. He co-founded the Rencontres Picha, Biennale de Lubumbashi (2008-2015) and directed the first three editions. He has curated exhibitions including “Prise de Terre” (part of GEOgraphics, Bozar, 2010) and many others. He is a member of the group 50:50, a collective of artists from the DR Congo, Switzerland and Germany.

Vitshois Mwilambwe Bondo, artist and curator, founder of the Congo Biennale and Kin Art Studio in Kinshasa. He studied art in Kinshasa, Strasbourg and Amsterdam. For over a decade, he has focussed on the mediation of contemporary aesthetics in the visual arts in the DR Congo and on the African continent and the promotion of young artists.

Support

Fondation Oumou Dilly
Pro Helvetia
Kultur Basel-Stadt