Portrait
Litar – a place for literature and its promotion. Zurich’s Galerie Litar hosts regular exhibitions and events on literary topics. We also produce publications and projects in the fields of literature, translation and the media.
Litar aims to spark ideas, discover new things and start conversations about rarely raised subjects. To do so, we work with programmes that run for several years and encompass a range of formats. We run our projects ourselves or in collaboration with other institutions.
The Litar Foundation is a non-profit organization; it does not accept funding applications.
Newsletter
Thank you for your interest in Litar. Our newsletter is published in German and informs readers about our current projects and upcoming events. It is sent out four to six times a year and can be cancelled at any time.
Programmes
Litar works on thematic projects that run over several years. Our objective is to explore literary content off the beaten track. In a fast-moving world, Litar takes the time for an in-depth examination of a subject, allowing it to develop on a regional, national and international basis and take effect far beyond the scope of the original programme.
Exhibition “litafrika – Abidjan & Accra” 2024, photos: Zeljko Gataric | Design: Rahel Arnold
litafrika – Abidjan & Accra
Strauhof Zurich, 7 June – 8 September 2024
The third and final litafrika exhibition focuses on the literary scenes of two metropolises in West Africa: Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and Accra in Ghana.
The starting point is the feminist library “1949books” (Abidjan/Côte d’Ivoire) and the archive “Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora” (LOATAD, Accra/Ghana). The scenes are diverse: literature is also slam, dance, comics and storytelling. The exhibition uses video installations and photographs to immerse the audience in the literary life and the cities of Abidjan and Accra, and presents current authors. It also explores cultural memory and highlights the colonial past of two neighbouring countries that are close and distant at the same time.
The exhibition is being realised by an international curator collective, the videos were realised by local filmmakers:
Curator collective
Sylvia Arthur and Seth Avusuglo (LOATAD, Accra), Edwige-Renée Dro (1949books, Abidjan), Christa Baumberger and Nicole Schmid (Litar, Zürich)
Videos and photographs
Nipah Dennis (Accra), Prince Agyei Peprah (Accra), Nuits Balnéaires (Abidjan)
In cooperation with Strauhof Zurich
Supported by Pro Helvetia and Ernst Göhner Stiftung. Thank you!
Download: Flyer litafrika – Abidjan & Accra
litafrika on Youtube
Selected exhibition contents as well as online events can also be viewed on the Youtube channel @litafrika.
Exhibition trilogy «litafrika» 2022–2024
Litar and the Strauhof Zurich are dedicating the exhibition trilogy “litafrika” (2022–2024) to literatures from the African continent. The third and last “litafrika” exhibition in 2024 builds on the two exhibitions “Poetries of a Continent” (2022) and “Artistic Encounters” (2023).
Pro Helvetia "To-gather" 2022–2024
Pro Helvetia supports “litafrika” over its entire duration in the “To-gather” programme. This funding vehicle enables new intercontinental collaborations and the establishment of long-term networks. The aim is to make the exchange between cultures more equal and sustainable as well as to test new forms of collaboration.
Impressum
Overall Project Management litafrika:
Christa Baumberger (Litar) and Rémi Jaccard (Strauhof)
Project Management Strauhof:
Rémi Jaccard and Philip Sippel
Graphic Design:
Rahel Arnold
Film editor:
Carlotta Holy-Steinemann
litafrika, part 2
litafrika, part 1
Current Publications
litafrika – Artistic Encounters. 8 Bücher – 8 Begegnungen | Edition Litar 03
Edited by Christa Baumberger, Rémi Jaccard, Nicole Schmid and Zukiswa Wanner. In German.
With excerpts from novels by Ishmael Beah, Virgília Ferrão, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Angela Makholwa, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Yara Nakahanda Monteiro, Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Ondjaki. German translations by Katja Meintel, Elisa Fuchs and others. Accompanying texts to the novels and photographs of the eight artistic encounters. Introductions by Christa Baumberger, Rémi Jaccard and Zukiswa Wanner.
Litar 2023 | 82 pages | 36 illustrations colour and b/w | ISBN 978-3-9525728-2-5
CHF 7.– (plus shipping costs)
Order: info@strauhof.ch
litafrika – Artistic Encounters | Paivapo Publishers
Edited by Zukiswa Wanner. With the eight excerpts of the novels in Portuguese, English and French. Some text excerpts were translated specifically for the exhibition by Edwige-Renée Dro and Sandra Tamele.
Paivapo 2023 | 189 pages | ISBN 978-0-639782-41-6
Order: info@strauhof.ch
litafrika – Artistic Encounters 8/2023 | Online magazine Periferias
Periferias is a Brazilian online platform with themed issues in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. The Periferias special issue “litafrika – Artistic Encounters” 8/2023 was published on the occasion of the exhibition.
Link: revistaperiferias.org
litafrika – Poetries of a Continent | Online magazine Specimen – Babel Review of Translation
Specimen, the online magazine for literary translation, has dedicated a focus to “litafrika” in its August 2023 issue. It presents a selection of poems from the exhibition “litafrika – Poetries of a Continent” in various new translations and languages.
Link: Specimen
Al Imfeld Article Collection
The collection of articles by the Swiss theologian and Africa journalist Al Imfeld contains newspaper articles on the literatures of the entire African continent from 1960 to 2014. The collection can be viewed at Litar by prior appointment. Al Imfeld article collection: Inventory
Contact: info@litar.ch
“Migration Memories”, exhibition at Galerie Litar Zurich, 9.3.–4.5.2024 | Graphic image: Rahel Arnold
Stimmlos
Literature and (In-)Justice
Which voices do we hear and who is denied a voice? Litar provides a platform for writers who were heard too rarely, for a wide range of reasons. Some were institutionalized or even declared incapable of speaking for themselves. Others withdrew and eventually fell silent. What remains is written traces, stories and novels, documents of their lives and sometimes also visual works. The “Stimmlos” (“Unvoiced”) programme acts as an amplifier, following these quiet voices, providing a space for the unheard and presenting stories that have not yet been written.
An installation at Galerie Litar allows visitors to experience the theme of “Unvoiced” with all their senses. Changing exhibitions are shown in a walk-in cell. Voices sound out, combined with images, photography and film. The cell’s confining walls invite visitors to cross mental boundaries.
Exhibitions to date:
Migration Memories
Galerie Litar, 9 March to 4 May 2024
More (in German)…
Frisch und Fein. Exil Zürich 1933
Galerie Litar, 15 April to 10 June 2023
More (in German)…
Aus der Stille ... Peter Liechti
Galerie Litar, 8 October to 3 December 2022
More (in German)…
Adelheid Duvanels Himmel
Galerie Litar, 30 October to 11 December 2021
More (in German)…
Friedrich Glausers Zelle
Galerie Litar, 28 May to 10 July 2021
More (in German)…
Damian Le Bas, Crisis Time / Refugee Could Be You Could Be Me, 2016 | Photo: Kai Dikhas, Diego Castellano Cano
Weltenweit
Yenish, Sinti and Roma Literatures
Under the title “Weltenweit” (“Worlds Wide”), Litar has focused since 2019 on Yenish, Sinti and Roma literatures and cultures. Switzerland has recognized the Yenish and Sinti as national minorities since 2016. The Roma are still fighting for official recognition in the country, however. The cultures of these minorities are rich and diverse – and yet barely known. Litar organized the “Weltenweit” Festival at Kosmos Zurich (5 and 6 April 2019) to change that. For the first time in Switzerland, Yenish, Sinti and Roma culture formed the focus of a festival. Since then, Litar has held readings, workshops, teaching events and panels in various places in Switzerland and Austria, on our own or in cooperation with institutions such as RomArchive, Initiative Minderheiten Tirol and Radgenossenschaft.
Current Publication
Morphing the Roma Label
Roma Jam Session art Kollektiv (Mo Diener, RR Marki and Milena Petrovic)
Published by Mo Diener and RR Marki, Zurich 2022.
Texts in German, English and Romanes.
Info and order: OnCurating.org
Publication and translations into Romanes were made possible with the support of Litar.
Agenda
Unless otherwise specified, events are listed in the language or the languages in which they will be held.
Information on past events is available here.
Galerie Litar
Galerie Litar stages exhibitions and holds events and workshops.
Galerie Litar Zurich © Studio Gataric Fotografie
Previous exhibitions
Contact
The Litar foundation is located at Letzistrasse 23 in Zurich-Oberstrass: in an old painter's studio, and surrounded by a cosy courtyard garden with old trees and a babbling fountain. Close to the city centre, yet quiet and idyllic, it is an ideal location for smaller scale exhibitions and events.
Galerie Litar Zurich © Studio Gataric Fotografie | Event photo: Nakarin Saisorn
Litar
Letzistrasse 23, CH-8006 Zurich
Tel. +41 44 291 99 00
info@litar.ch
www.litar.ch
How to get to Litar:
- Tram 10 from Zurich central station to Letzistrasse (10 mins)
- Tram 10 from Zurich airport to Letzistrasse (20 mins)
- Tram 9 from Bellevueplatz to Letzistrasse (10 mins)
Newsletter
Thank you for your interest in Litar. Our newsletter is published in German and informs readers about our current projects and upcoming events. It is sent out four to six times a year and can be cancelled at any time.
Team
Photos team: Ayse Yavas