BÜMPLIZ

Bümpliz, a multicultural neighborhood in globalized Switzerland, is a place full of contradictions. A great artist’s inspiration and a reccuring theme in Michael Spahr’s work. At the moment he works on the video installation PIMPOLIS.

PIMPOLIS is a piece of video art that will be dealing with (sub)urbanity, nationalism, migration, gentrification and the madness of globalization. It will be shown in a particular spot in Bern. In a webcam live performance in July 2010 parts of PIMPOLIS were combined with images from the theatre art piece «Fondue Oper» and have been shown in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A. A sketch can be watched on Youtube.

A few years ago Michael Spahr directed the documentary film «Bümpliz – A Day in Urban Switzerland». 24 hours in Swiss capital Bern’s most notorious neighborhood. The film portrays five people and families: a senior citizen (a passionate player of a sport called «Platzgen»), an Italian hair dresser and her husband who runs a pizza restaurant, a potato farmer on the outskirts of the city, a hip hop rap duo and a girl and her family who recenty migrated from Uruguay to Switzerland.

The film talks about migration, social problems, the economic changes as well as the beauty of a multicultural neighborhood in the globalized world. It catches a moment of history in the early 21st century.

The film is available on DVD (with English and German subtitles) and can be ordered online directly from RHAPS.COM: ORDER BY E-MAIL (CHF 25.- plus shipping and handling).

Or it can be bought exclusively at Bümpliz’ loveliest bookstore:
Buchhandlung am Stadtbach (Bümplizstrasse 126, 3018 Bern, Switzerland)

More info about the film here (in German only).