Robin Bervini

Svizzeri ma Ausländer

Robin Bervini grew up in Southern Switzerland, with little to no contact with non-white people. He grew up with a certain pride and aknowledging the priviledges of being Swiss, but being mixed-race, since an early age he found himself having to explain or prove his roots and belongings. Although accepted and rarely discriminated against for his complexion, the where are you from? question would come up way too often and way too early in most conversation, in most cases followed by where are you really from?, when they weren’t satisfied with the first answer (born in Mendrisio, raised in Melano). Other assumptions, such as you are adopted, right? Forced him to face the fact that no matter how much he felt and was Swiss, he would never be seen as such by others, solely based on his complexion.

Svizzeri ma Ausländer (Italian and German for Swiss but Foreigners) was born as a photo book that found its final form in a newspaper. It collects the personal experience of people living in Southern Switzerland and who experienced a variety of prejudice and discrimination against them. The interviews are accompanied by portraits and environment photos, and throughout the newspaper there are inserts from the local alt-right newspaper. In the votation pools, Southern Switzerland’s canton Ticino keeps confirming itself as the most right winged canton in the country, and the tones and contents of the newspaper inserts make that very clear. These pages are in contrast with the ones showing traditional depictions of Ticino in postcards, creating tension between the idyllic landscapes of the canton and the delicate political situation.

Svizzeri ma Ausländer was first printed in an edition of 20 in Italian language. The graphic design and one of the typefaces have been made by Souther Swiss designers Robin Eberwein and Luca Pellegrini.