Swiss Pride

"Swiss people are 'very special'," said Mercel with a grin. He is the owner of our favorite neighborhood café, "Lass uns Freunde bleiben", in Berlin. His words sounded a bit ironic as he described Swiss pride.

During our 8 days in Basel and Buchs, a small town bordering Liechtenstein, we felt the sense that Swiss people are indeed special. But there was no irony in what we felt.

Switzerland is home to an absolutely beautiful landscape that is known and loved throughout the world. Besides from this stunning scenery, they have no other natural resources to speak of.

I imagine that for centuries they have known that this land might be best preserved for their own future benefit. With love, care and education of conservation they have developed a deep pride in their only natural resource, the land.

Sure, they have also won world acclaim for their precision and their respect for privacy; for their Swiss watches and their Swiss banks, respectively. However, these are skills that have been honed by a serious attention to detail that their leaders with fantastic foresights have strategically promoted, and are different from a natural resource.

Buchs is one of those picturesque Swiss towns surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The air is delicious. People drink water directly from the small fountains scattered throughout the town. The water is pure, cold and refreshing.

The purpose of our visit to Buchs was to collaborate with photographer/printmaker Jacques Lecoultre. This was the first of several collaborative art projects scheduled throughout the year. Jacques was eager to take us out of his atelier and into the hills for hiking when the collaboration needed a break. He drove us to one of his favorite spots, twice, as it was only a short half hour drive from his atelier.

What a breathtakingly beautiful place it was, with rolling green pasture land studded with wildflowers and capped in snowy peaks. In the center of this emerald alpine valley sits a small pristine lake, reflecting the surrounding in its icy blue water.

This land is open to the public for day use and overnight camping is forbidden. It's a place where locals come to enjoy their enormous love for the outdoors. Jacques grew up visiting here, and he now shares this nature with his young son, Yannick, who has also developed a deep appreciation for the environment.

The reasons we felt "Swiss are special" are that their love for their land and its nature seem to be synonymous to their patriotism. They continue to work to keep the land pure and untouched, and in some sense, keep themselves that way, too.

Swiss are extremely sensitive to the news reports on energy resources and the related geopolitical activities, as well as environmental phenomena such as global warming. Jacques said, with a concerned expression, " If the oil reserve run out after fifty years, what would we do then? That's the question I have been asking to myself these days."

A Peek into the World of Art

A young, wealthy-looking gentleman caught our attention shortly after our EC train departed the Ostbahnhof station in Berlin, heading directly to Basel, Switzerland. He settled deeply into his reserved seat in front of us. He wore his hair slicked back, a shiny pair of glasses, a fresh stripe shirt, a dark green flannel sport jacket, and a leather-made business case. His watch was a Rolex chronograph. He seemed to be trying to shake off a cold or suffering from allergy, though, snorting and blowing his nose noisily. Then he was making frequent calls on his cell phone, talking loudly.

I nicked named this young, chubby, and noisy gentleman "Philippe". We joked that he might as well be one of those art dealers headed to The Art in Basel. As Philippe read the newspaper, he took a long time studying the latest Porsche 911 review, the sports section featuring the European Cup 2004, and the business section. We discovered that he was an art professional, only because I happened to witness him quickly reviewing letters from art galleries and spending a few short minutes browsing an art magazine. He then took up a tabloid paper filled with nude photos and gossip.

Philippe was headed to Switzerland to attend Art Basel 2004, an annual art fair, which is the biggest and the most renouned in the world. The international event attracts prominent gallerists, artists, and most importantly, collectors from around the world. This event was one of the reasons for our visit to Basel.

As we observed Philippe over the seven-hour train trip, we had to wonder what type of art he was involved with, as his behavior was rather crude. Was he a collector, a gallerist? What type of art business was he involved with? We never found out, but we kept an eye out for him over the next several days.

After we arrived in Basel, we got a hint of what art means to the people and what it might be in their society. For example, the countries paper currency is decorated with portraits of artists and writers. Inside a tiny half-inch square they describe the significant achievement of the person in very small text. The only other example of currency depicting artists, that I know of, is one Japanese bill with Sohseki Natsume, a well known author, printed on it. Were there other examples in Europe before they adopted the Euro?

The overwhelming majority of the world's paper currency depicts the portraits of politicians, or those who have contributed to the counties establishment, independence and development of the nation, or war heroes who have defeated their enemies. A female artist, an author, and a music composer are featured here in Switzerland. Could this discovery lead us to glimpse as to how the Swiss position arts in their society?

We will stay in Switzerland for just a week, visiting The Art and then moving to Buchs to collaborate with a Swiss photographer/printmaker. As we discover more about the business of art, we expect to find many more Philippe's out there.