Pictures
Swiss-Haitian artist Sasha Huber (*1975), member of the Transatlantic Committee “De-mounting Louis Agassiz”, has, as part of her exhibition, made an intervention by bringing a metal plaque including a graphic representation of the slave Renty to the top of the Alpine peak Agassizhorn (3946 metres above sea level), situated on the border between the cantons of Berne and Valais, and by so doing, to take a first step towards a renaming of that mountain.
With this act, the fact is to be commemorated that Swiss-born naturalist and glaciologist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was an influential racist and a pioneering thinker of apartheid and that therefore the Agassizhorn ought to be renamed “Rentyhorn” in honour of the Congolese-born slave of whom Agassiz ordered a photo to be taken on a South Carolina plantation, in order “to prove the inferiority of the black race” and persons with similar destinies as Renty.
After the completion of the artistic act, Sasha Huber and the Transatlantic Committee “De-Mounting Louis Agassiz” submitted a request for the plaque to be fixed to the rocks of the summit permanently and for the mountain to be renamed, to those boards forming the judicial context of the Agassizhorn: the authorities of the communes of Grindelwald, Guttannen und Fieschertal, the authorities of the cantons of Berne and Valais as well as the executive board and the advisory committee of the public trust responsible for UNESCO’s world natural heritage area “Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn”. Among the addressees for the request can be found Benedikt Weibel, former CEO of Swiss Federal Railway, Adolf Ogi, former member of the Swiss government, Heiner Geissler, former German minister and MP, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger, and no less than former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The answers to the request submitted will prove whether in the case of the Agassizhorn, the Ghanaian Kofi Annan and the other eminent personons can afford to slight those goals of anti-racism and commemoration of slavery so dear to UNESCO.
Eventually, with www.rentyhorn.ch an international petition to, among others, the Swiss government and two chambers of parliament has gone on-line recently. It is designed to inform (in German, English, French and Italian) about the campaign and to collect signatories who support the re-naming. Already men and women from all over the world have entered their names.
In her exhibition Sasha Huber presents a video, photographs, drawings and various documentation materials.
In close collaboration with Hans Fässler, historian, autor and founder of the Transatlantic Committee “De-mounting Louis Agassiz”.
More on the campaign “De-Mounting Louis Agassiz” under: www.louverture.ch/AGASSIZ.html
A share of all sales will be donated to Solifonds (Solidarity Fund for the Social Struggles for Liberation in the Third World) in Zurich, Switzerland. www.solifonds.ch
Sasha Huber lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.
Contact: +358 50 4005028, sasha(at)sashahuber.com, www.sashahuber.com
CREDITS VIDEO
Director: Sasha Huber
Writer: Hans Fässler
Videographer/Photographer: Siro Micheroli
Photo retoucher: Tuckfhat.com
Editor: Eetu Vihervaara
Pilot: Adolf Litzler/Air Glaciers
Mountain guide: Andreas Schild
Proofreading: Mike Garner
Supported by AVEK
CREDIT
Petition Website programing: Kryptoniitti, Jukka-Pekka Naukkarinen
Online Questionnaire (Petition website): Mikael Wahlström, Researcher
Limited Edition Renty Brooches: Katariina Guthwert
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO
Hans Fässler, Siro Micheroli, Eetu Vihervaara, Marco Hüppi, Jukka-Pekka Naukkarinen, Mike Garner, H.R. Fricker, The Transatlantic Committee
“De-Mounting Louis Agassiz”, Kathrin Winzenried, Adolf Litzler, Andreas Schild, Pipilotti Rist, Johanna Sarjas, Elie Noël, Katariina Guthwert,
Wolfgang Zeller, Heidi Huber, Milos Merz, Carlo Sommaruga, German Eyer, Markus Traber, Petri Saarikko.
