National Museum Zurich takes a close look at Swiss consumption
Published: Wednesday, Dec 18th 2024, 13:20
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The National Museum Zurich is looking back on 170 years of consumer history in its new exhibition "Consumer Worlds - Everyday Life in Focus". From Friday, the exhibition will use pictures and objects to show how consumption and the everyday life associated with it have changed.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a kiosk that has been painstakingly restored for the show, as the National Museum Zurich announced on Wednesday. This kiosk stood in Locarno TI at the beginning of the 20th century. For a long time, its range included cigarettes, newspapers and sweets. At the end of the 1990s, he expanded this to include outdoor activities and computers with Internet access. According to the press release, its changing appearance and product range make the kiosk a "witness to everyday life and consumer culture".
The exhibition is structured in two parts. The first part illustrates the most important places of consumption and how they have changed. The exhibition shows how markets, peddling and street trading were joined by more and more stores, wholesalers and shopping centers. The developments continue right up to today's online stores. The exhibition thus interweaves the changes in consumer society with technological developments and shows the changes from industrialization to digitalization.
According to the press release, the second part of the exhibition deals photographically and graphically with moments of consumption. The focus here is on what is consumed: eating, drinking, driving, traveling, fashion and television reflect basic needs and trends at certain times, the exhibition organizers wrote. This includes a slide show with vacation photos by the couple Yvonne and Jakob Hohl-Galbiati. The slide show is an example of how increasing prosperity from 1950 onwards enabled many Swiss people to take regular vacations abroad. The exhibition at the National Museum is on display until April 21.
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