The original idea of Whispering Benches is to make the voices of minorities living among us heard, to explore the resistance in the voices, and to examine the practice of listening as a transformative process in relation to impact, colonial past, and power. The work is also an invitation to reconsider listening as a symbiotic practice. 

Storytelling, songs, and poetry played the central key to this project, describing alienation from home and family, migration, and the relationship to life in a new environment in the protagonists' own voices and words. The stories tell of the plight of individuals due to climate migration, war, environmental disasters, and political oppression. 

The inspiration for this project is taken from the title of a bilingual anthology of Arabic poems by Mahmoud Darwish " Unfortunately, it was Paradise. "  The notion of Paradise as a place of contentment, a land of luxury and fulfillment - Switzerland is often described or imagined as Paradise by foreigners and is also characterized by the tourism industry. My Indian friends or family often tell me I live in Paradise! The contradictory interpretation of this somewhat naive view that I have landed here in Paradise has occupied me since I arrived in Switzerland a few years ago. The project title is thus an ironic commentary on this contradiction that accompanies me as an immigrant like many others. Lately, this concept has fascinated me to work with inmates in a closed prison in Graubünden (JVA Cazis Tignez). The project was started as an individual project. But naturally, in a short time, the project has become collective and collaborative. The work has been produced sustainably by the inmates in the wood workshops of the correctional facility.

The idea for a collaborative and public art project - Whispering Benches(benches with built-in audio installations in public spaces) - was born in this sense also as a reaction to this situation and to overcome the isolation it created during the pandemic. It aims to enable people to encounter and hear micro-stories and thus fragments of other lives in public, especially in the small villages in Switzerland.

The project was curated by Gianni Jetzer and exhibited in three locations in the canton of Aargau, Möriken- Wildegg, Lengnau and Baden. However, these migratory benches are looking for the possibility to migrate from one place to another. This public art action will serve as a community-building project and rely on interaction and an active engagement of the audience. The project aims to build community through a nationwide traveling art experience by transforming and activating public spaces.

• Please, Listen generously!

Artist:

Ishita Chakraborty

Curator:

Gianni Jetzer

Special Thanks to:

Contributors:

-Ella Ronen

-Ali Reza

-Lama Altakruri

-Milena Petrovic

-Farid Alizai

-Azad Colemêrg

-Vandria Borari.

-Ayliz Baskin Huber

-Marshal Bhebhe

-Annabelle van Puijenbroek

-Françoise Vergès

Production:

JVA Cazis Tignez - Office of Corrections - Canton Graubünden in the in-house carpentry workshop.

Graphic Design:

Anirban Ghosh

Sound designer/ editor:

Stefan Bauer

Additional Support:

Claudia Spinelli, Kunstraum Baden

Cornelia Ackermann, Kunst Im Trudelhaus

Photo and Video Documentation:

Thomas Kern

Gautschi Editions

Advisory and collaboration

Martina Huber, We are AIA, Zurich

Special thanks to:

Gemeindehaus Morieken-Wildegg.

Gemeindehaus Lengnau.

Kunst Im Trudelhaus Baden.

Aargauer Kunsthaus.

The project is supported by:

Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council.

Kulturstiftung der Credit Suisse Aargau

Hans und Lina Blattner Stiftung

LEBENSRAUM AARGAU