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Malcolm Pender 
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Yves Netzhammer - computer graphic |
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The opening of the Tate Modern art museum in London in May 2000 represented a conjunction of the creative aspects of two conservative countries: the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron had renovated an empty building as a commission from the British Tate Gallery for the display of modern art. The symbolism inherent in bringing a disused power-station back to life to operate in the cultural sphere with such invigorating force reminds us that the Swiss writer Albin Zollinger once claimed that the creative imagination acts like a mysterious vitamin in society - like the human body without the vitamin, society would be sadly dysfunctional without creative imagination. Switzerland, like Britain, tends to glorify her past in certain mythical narratives and to regard the forward movement of events as inimical to, or even destructive of, these narratives. Thus, in Switzerland, again as in Britain, powerful political forces see current developments in Europe threatening her structures and the spirit of her past. I hope that these parallels between the two countries and my own interest in and regard for the creative imagination in Switzerland manifested in her literature provide some justification for me, as a Briton, seeking, in the wake of the collaborative example of Tate Modern, to set the present collection of Swiss writing in some kind of broad context.
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