OHCHR International Minority Artist Competition- 2024 Laureates
OHCHR International Minority Artist Competition- 2024 Laureates
Exhibition im Ecolit - Internationale School Geneva
Since 2022, OHCHR in partnership with Minority Rights Group International, Freemuse and the City of Geneva have organized the International Art Contest for Minority Artists. The contest aims to support minority artists committed to defending human rights around the world. The ceremony of 26 November will recognize minority artists selected in this year’s edition of the contest by an international jury to receive awards and honorable mention for their work on the theme of “Memory in the Present”. The Award Ceremony will be followed by a cocktail reception with the artists and an exhibition.
International Minority Artist Competition
International Minority Artists Awards
Schwarz sein in der Schweiz
Being black in Switzerland - racism in everyday life
Structural problemRassismus in der Schweiz: Für Schwarze Menschen allgegenwärtig
Racism is omnipresent for black people: sometimes more, sometimes less, but always there. For many white Swiss people, this is difficult to understand. They think that because Switzerland didn't have its own colonies, Switzerland has nothing to do with racism.
52 United Nations, Human Right Council session
Gender-based violence against Women and Girls in public and political life
The United Nations 52nd Human Rights session to discuss promising examples of measures to address gender-based violence against women and girls in public and political life in line with States’ human rights obligations to prevent, investigate and punish such violence and promote women’s participation.
Artful Rebellion
Artful Rebellion
Artful Rebellion: The Transformative Power of Artivism in the Struggle for Racial Justice for People of African Descent
UN Women has embarked on a global process of assessing and deepening its anti-racism work toward developing an intentional racial justice approach throughout its programmes.
Part of this work is approached in the context of its new 2023 – 2025 strategic plan, which identifies a new imperative for UN Women’s areas of focus: the need for “integrated approaches to address the root causes of inequality [including racial inequality]… by supporting positive social norms.”
The relationship between dismantling systemic racism through promoting positive social norms is a direct one, as described in the 2021 Human Rights Council conference paper1 related to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. There, special mention is given to the importance of dismantling one of the chief drivers of the structures that shore up systemic racism: the racial stereotypes and false characterizations that are embedded in social norms.
In other words, harmful racial stereotypes are foundational to the harmful social norms that perpetuate racial injustice.
In this regard, in its racial justice approaches, UN Women recognizes and pays particular attention to the critical role of the creative arts and “artivism” in changing the social norms and stereotypes that drive racism, as it has been well-established that deeply held beliefs and practices – the space in which harmful norms and stereotypes being perpetuated - are not easily changed by rational discourse. Artistic expression - from film to novels to poetry, visual art, music and song and dance and theater - is where profound shifts can take place, because they are acting on senses and emotions - those beliefs absorbed through the senses at early ages.
Afrofuturismus : Afro-feministischefuturismus
Afrofeministfuturism
Space of possibility: Afrofuturism
Christina Cissokho im Gespräch mit Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
Panel Talk on 26. Mai 2023, Stadtbibliothek Winterthur
Post by African Voices make African possibilities visible, open up new horizons and enrich our actions. Afro-Futurism can be understood as a deconstruction that creates new narratives.
Afro-Futurism breaks dichotomies and creates space for new possibilities to enable a more balanced search for truth, to break through rigid paradigms and to challenge the Eurocentric view. In this sense, the different forms of Afro-Futurism are always political, not so much in working through a party program, but rather in uncovering social issues that critically illuminate coexistence and take marginalized perspectives seriously. Historically, Afro-Futurism is part of other movements that are retelling the continent of Africa, as Pan-Africanism did from the 1920s and produced important thinkers such as Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal). Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Kenya) writes in his book about "Making Africa visible!", which was republished in 2022 and has lost none of its topicality.
Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo embodies the movement of Afro-Futurism as a politician as well as a scientist and translates her commitment into art. In the panel talk with Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo we will explore Afro-Futurism - expanding horizons is guaranteed!
Decolonizing Jazz
Decolonizing Jazz
On March 2, 2023, I finally sat down for the long-awaited panel on cultural appropriation. Although I was the moderator and not a keynote speaker, I expected it to be a difficult talk for me. When i initiated the discussion on cultural appropriation in Switzerland in 2017, i was accused of cultural apartheid and racism at the time. Most people in the Swiss cultural scene demanded that my Swiss nationality be revoked and I be deported back to Kenya. So, it took six years before I agreed to face the aggressive Swiss cultural mob who were still hungry for my blood.
We needed to create a safe space to hold such a critical discussion, so we created some rules.
Diskussionsregeln
Goal: create a safe space for a respectful discussion
- We are not here to discuss whether cultural appropriation exists
- Culture thrives on a healthy exchange and today we are talking about how this exchange can happen on an equal footing
- It is crucial that both sides can express themselves: those affected by racism and those not affected by racism
- Today we give the floor first to those affected by cultural appropriation. In the previous discussion about cultural appropriation, we have mostly heard privileged people speaking in the media
- If someone does not follow the rules of a respectful discussion this afternoon and interrupts the conversation with inappropriate comments or heckling, does not listen or interrupts others, we will escort them outside
- We recognize jazz's historical origins as African-American music
- Based on this, we discuss further information and background of jazz music
Today we will not primarily be looking for answers, nor is it about finding solutions.
Today it's about starting an exchange and a dialogue on the same wave length and it's about us starting to listen to each other and learn from each other.
Women of Colour making HERstory
Women of Colour making HeRstory
Women of colour defy stereotypes and are shaping today’s world. But they need equal chances to reach their dreams. #LearnSpeakUpAct to #FightRacism & stand for #GenderEquality. Learn, Speak up, Act! is a global call for concrete action against racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The challenges posed by these problems are not new nor are there easy solutions. What is needed is action by – governments, institutions, groups and individuals – all of us.
Musik für einen Gast
Music for a guest -SRF
Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo, intercultural mediator
When Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo tells us that people yodel in Kenya, she gets astonished looks. When she came to Switzerland, folk music helped her to make friends. Today, the Afro-Swiss is committed to equality - with artistic and political means.
Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo's resume reflects her strong desire to help shape the world. The studied economist came to Switzerland more than 20 years ago because of love. She first worked as a croupier in casinos, as a presenter at Radio LoRa and later as an artist.
She campaigns for equal opportunities and against discrimination in various ways - as an intercultural mediator and curator of exhibitions as well as in community politics and in international organizations. Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo has retained her passion for yodeling.
Exhibition "Blind spot" in Zürich
Exhibition "Blind spot" in Zürich
Exhibition in the city hall Zürich
Zürich and Colonialism What does Zurich have to do with colonialism? How were the people of Zurich involved in it? To answer this question, I made a collage about the effects of colonialism. We also offer solutions in our Workshops on Afrofuturism - Past, Present and Future in the accompanying program.
Collage legend: The most disrespected woman
The most disrespected woman ... is the Black woman - the quote by Malcolm X is the title of this artwork. The artwork was inspired by the Afro-Swiss women who worked tirelessly to include people of African descent in this exhibition. Black women gave testimonies about their experiences in Switzerland and words used to describe them, and their experiences were incorporated into the artwork collage. Using extended reality, visitors to the exhibition can view video clips of the Black women's statements about these experiences. I will update these statements periodically due to the high number of experiences I have received. The ladder symbolizes the fact that Black women are often placed beside the steps they need to climb their goals and at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.
- Scan the QR code
- Click on the various buttons below the collage to see the different statements made by Black women.
City mayor Corine Mauch, my artwork und i
Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo
Collage - mixed media technique, environmentally friendly paint, recyclable fabrics and materials.
200 x 77x 42 cm
Bottom right signature: Apiyo Amolo, 2022
Created 2022
On loan to the city of Zürich
Consequences of Colonialism: Voices of Black Women
Colonial stereotypes
Invisible
Traumaporn
Don't stare, don't touch, don't pull my hair!
We are committed
The current world situation requires social and political commitment – especially in everyday life. On the occasion of the International Women's Day, we asked eight women what they want to achieve in the future and how they are committed to it in everyday life.
- Text: Miriam Suter; Photos: Jenny Mayfield (1), Nessie Spencer / Flickr (1)
Black Heidi
Black Heidi
She is Black, left-wing and extrovert - and loves the Appenzell region.
How yodeling helped Kenyan Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo survive in Switzerland.
Webreprt: With Apiyo at the Appenzeller Wrestling festival.
TEXT: YAËL DEBELLE
Everyone stares at her. Men click, women fall silent, boys giggle, girls giggle. Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo is Black. That's enough to be a sensation at the Appenzeller Canton wrestling festival in Schwende.
She grew up in Kenya. She also feels at home in Appenzell. She learned to yodel there, with Rempfler Josef, even before she could speak German. "Yodelling saved my life in Switzerland," she says.
In the tent she sits down at the beer table. "What do you have that is vegetarian?" – “Uh, nothing” says the helper in the oversized sponsor shirt. Then she ordered french fries. Furtive glances left and right. “I just like wrestling festivals. I feel comfortable here."
She didn't find any friends for three years. "My yodeling friends call me 'Black Heidi'," says the 40-year-old. She started yodeling over ten years ago. Out of despair.
After three years in Switzerland, she still hadn't found any friends and sat at home for days while her husband was on duty. Switzerland seemed cold to her. Brändle-Amolo comes from a good family in Kisumu, her father is an engineer and his mother was the first female car mechanic in the whole country. She herself worked in the hotel, as the guest-relations manager. Among them was a Swiss policeman. The two fell in love and married in 2000. The marriage went well, but she felt isolated in her new home. After three
years of loneliness, she asked herself the question: «What am I actually doing here?» But she is stubborn, and doesn't easily give up.
"I had to find a way to connect to the Swiss." She found it through singing. She googled «Swiss traditional singing»,
ended up with yodeling and wrote to the first suggested address:
«I am a Kenyan woman, I would like to learn Yodel.» («Ich bin eine kenianische Frau und möchte jodeln lernen.»)
Josef Rempfler from the folk music trio Appenzeller Echo wrote back on the same day. She should
come by that Saturday. There were 20 people waiting when she came by.
Everyone wanted to get to know her and asked a lot. Brändle-Amolo felt welcome in Switzerland for the first time. And that was the beginning of such welcoming experiences. In her first appearance, the whole thing
hall got up, yodelled and clapped along. "You just have to find the key. The Swiss have
a warm heart."
A patriotic film is showing in front of the tent, in real life. Two men with bulging bellies and long alphorns, between them an elderly woman in traditional costume. They blow on the lush green meadow, next to them two boys whirl Swiss flags in the air. Brändle-Amolo's light afro
shines in the sun.
"You really good" For the federal yodelling festival two years ago, she straightened her hair. "Today I think: if you are going to do it , go all in." She always attracts attention anyway, and people always see her as an African, no matter what she does. Today she wears a short, black dirndl-style costume, sewn by herself. Embroidered pink flowers adorn the hem, white lace ensnares her décolleté. The feet are in high booties.
"Winner, first place: Horner Peter," boomed the loudspeaker. The wrestler takes off his edelweiss shirt
and pours well water over his massive body. It's over 30 degrees hot. Brändle-Amolo pulls out her cell phone and films what is happening. A young man rushes towards her, beaming. «You really look
good, can i have a photo with you?” He is Michael and finds it casual how she dresses and in general, and
he absolutely had to show his brother the photo. "It was sweet," says Brändle-Amolo.
Michael isn't the only one who wants a photo of her. A German Schwing fan, from Schwingfest to
Schwing festival says: "That's crazy. My wife doesn't believe me if I don't have a picture of it
have." Two farmers guide them to the live prizes, the winning muni Flatteri and the cattle Bambi. "have to have a photo with her, what fun."
Gladly, no problem, says Brändle-Amolo, but she has to keep her face in the sun: "Otherwise you just see
Black." – «She can speak German!» wonders a woman.
"Why does she have Chrusla like that?" “Appenzellers are direct, they say what they think. I like that." She can handle that better than political correctness. "The people
in the country are sometimes like children." When a white and a black child play together, both are just curious, without prejudice. “Why is she like that Chruslä?” asks a girl.
"You climb down!" calls a boy. Brändle-Amolo climbed a rock to take a picture with a mountain panorama. "Why?" she asks back. «because you are a N**gerli!»
She has no business here, she is not Swiss. "Yes, I am," she replies.
When she was supposed to give a speech on the national day, 1st of August, near Zurich last year, she found dog faeces in her mailbox and hate mail in her inbox. A yodelling friend found her an apartment in the Limmattal after she couldn't get one for months. “Maybe because of the colour of my skin,” she says.
“Racial Profiling” is the title of her master’s thesis, Racism in Authorities. She is studying intercultural communication at the University of Lugano, her third degree after economics in Nairobi and San Diego and video journalism in Switzerland. She knows the feeling of being the only one in a group being checked by the police.
She joined the SP three years ago and ran for the Zurich Cantonal Council and the National Council.
That in the yodelling scene, in which she so quickly felt at home, there were many xenophobes and almost exclusively
didn't know for a long time that there were almost exclusively right wing party, SVP voters. Today, she knows it. But it doesn't change her love of yodelling. “This shouldn’t drive me crazy.” You have to start somewhere.
«If you share a meal with someone, he can hardly see you as an enemy anymore," she says. She fell in love with a Swiss man in
love but only managed to stay and integrate in Switzerland thanks to the yodelers.
After nine years of marriage, her husband filed for divorce in 2009. His wife had become too Swiss for him. The police officer emigrated to the Dominican Republic. A little later, Brändle-Amolo received a letter from the authorities saying she had to return her Swiss passport. She was to be expatriated because of a fake marriage. She hired a lawyer and fought in vain for a year.
Then she made a short film. The plot: Brändle-Amolo yodels happily, my father is in Appezöller, düoi, düoi, düoido. Then the mood changes, she starts to cry and disappears from the picture, a poster appears - three white sheep kicking a black one from Switzerland. The film wins awards at international festivals. Brändle-Amolo sends it to the migration office, and a letter comes back a little later saying she can keep her passport. «Yodeling saved my life a second time in Switzerland.
Petition Russian -Ukraine War
The Dehumanization of Black People and People of Colour during War
Africans in Ukraine have spoken out in interviews and on social media about people of colour and Black people being denied evacuation and safe exit from Ukraine. They are afraid of the European authorities and hold their own African governments accountable.
Oprah helped my carrier.
Oprah helped my carrier.
Gewinnerin Venezianischen Kunstpreis
Yvonne Brändle-Amolo from Weiningen depicts her life in an art video and celebrates international success. It was at the end of March 2012 that she won the Venetian art prize "Art Laguna".
Venice Biennale
Why is the Kenyan pavilion at the Venice Biennale showing works by Chinese artists?
Kenyan Pavilion Venice Biennale
Es gibt nur eine kenianische Künstlerin, Yvonne Brandle-Amolo, in der Ausstellung. Die übrigen Namen im Pavillon gehören mehreren Künstlern aus China sowie dem Italiener Armando Tanzini.
Voodoo Masks
Women with Afro hairstyles are insulted and discriminated against because of their hair
Women with Afro hairstyles are insulted and discriminated against because of their hair.
Racism
- To protect themselves from discrimination, women with Afro curls often wear wigs or stretched hair.
- "It is still impossible to walk around with an Afro hairstyle without being disturbed," says Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo, co-president of the SP Migrants Zurich.
- Some US states explicitly prohibit discrimination based on hairstyle and hair structure – this is now also being demanded by a Green National Councillor.
But woe betide them opening their mouths
But woe betide them opening their mouths
Four women describe everyday racism and sexism in Swiss politics. How they are attacked, what they think about it and how they defend themselves.
I am never just a woman but always a Black woman
Always a Black woman
Racism
Through yodelling, she connected to local village life and made headlines as Black Heidi: a dark-skinned woman who wears traditional attire and takes part in wrestling and alpine festivals!
Racism is not a American problem
Racism is not a American problem
Mit ihrer Haarpracht und ihrer Hautfarbe gehört die Schlieremer SP-Gemeinderätin Yvonne Brändle-Amolo zu den schillerndsten Figuren in der Limmattaler Regionalpolitik. Aufgrund ihres Aussehens wird die gebürtige Kenianerin in der Schweiz aber immer wieder mit Rassismus konfrontiert.
More women in civil defence
Zivilschutz zu Zeiten des Coronavirus
Frauen in den Zivilschutz
Die Schlieremer SP-Parlamentarierin Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo fordert Frauen dazu, sich freiwillig beim Zivilschutz zu melden
