Representing the Alps in Switzerland

This subject is an extract from Nicolas Brodard's photographic project Representing the Alps in Switzerland. This forthcoming book explores Switzerland's visual identity based on the Alpine landscape.

In the mid-19th century^th century, Switzerland became a federal nation-state. At the end of the fratricidal Sonderbund war, the idea of a nationwide sense of belonging presupposed the composition of a collective narrative on which to base a spirit of concord. This was based on pre-existing texts, some of which paid tribute to heroic acts of independence and solidarity, such as those of the Battle of Morgarten and William Tell. However, the constitution of this national narrative under the baton of the Radicals was also grounded in its time, and part of an underlying intellectual and cultural movement with a European dimension.

Romanticism embraced all fields of art and thought: literature, music, painting, engraving, but also philosophy and politics. Preceded by the aesthetics of the sublime and the art of gardens, this current of thought gave pride of place to the spectacular and the landscape; the picturesque character of the Alps was inevitably invested by this nostalgic imagination, shared by contemporary Switzerland and its visitors.

This young nation is unique in that it has established its landscape as a visual identity, making it the mainstay of its representation. With its small, mainly mountainous territory, it is in a position to invest in and fully exploit the picturesque dimension of its geographical space. With ancient narratives joining the advent of an era under the reign of the image, Switzerland is ready to enter modernity with valuable assets. This is evidenced by the dazzling development of a mass tourism industry inaugurated by the European elite, to which it owes many of its infrastructures and economic developments.

The theme of the emergence and persistence of this singular identity is that of the photographic project Representing the Alps in Switzerland. This book - soon to be published - aims to critically analyze this collective imagery by revisiting the contours of the sublime and romanticism that have made Switzerland the benchmark mountain territory in the national and global collective imagination. However, the iconic nature of the peaks is never immediately apparent in this visual study, which thrives on the interplay between fiction and reality.

You have just read an insight contained in our dossier «In the shadow of the Alps», published in our print edition (Le Regard Libre N°115).