We Demand!
Research on the "Manifesto for Foreign Women" from 1975
with Vera Ryser
2016
7 HD Videos
In February 1975 180 migrant women of different nationalities in Zurich wrote the „Manifesto of Foreign Women„. With it they demanded progressive political and social rights and fought publicly for recognition within Swiss society . This manifesto was then briefly and vigorously discussed in various Swiss media but was vilified more than anything. However many of the demands remain relevant to today. This commitment to the political and social rights of women migrants in Switzerland represents an important but little-known part of Swiss history. In order to make the endeavours of these women visible once more, forty years after the manifesto was first made public, Ryser+Schonfeldt interviewed 7 women involved in producing the manifesto. In narrative interviews the women speak candidly about their political work,their memories surrounding the manifesto and the times it was written in, as well as their perceptions of migration today. The resulting installation shows videos of each interview; it becomes an archive of historical story telling brought into the present through the voices of the women themselves.