Share this Collection
1 Citation in this Annotation:
Annotated by:
Helen Thomas on Spinnerei
29 July, 2024
Although written in German, this story uncovering a complex socio-economic situation can be understood with even a rudimentary – a childlike – grasp of the language. That is, I, a perpetual student of German, could follow it, supported by sequences of drawings that show in fascinating detail the human, the architectural, landscapes of Glarus and the life and power structures that animate them.
Researched, written and illustrated by Susan Honegger, artist and long-time dweller in Canton Glarus, Spinnerei tells a story that spans 50-60 years in time. This is just three generations – grandmother, mother and daughter – but the history of exploitation it reveals is one that seems belongs to a more distant time, especially in Switzerland. Although framed within the narrative of a specific family, the experience of the characters tells a larger story.
This is especially true of the grandmother’s life. Recruited by the Catholic Church to work as indentured labour in a textile factory, she was brought as a 15-year old to a hamlet in South Glarus from her family in the north Italian village of Magno in 1965. Working 6 days a week, with church on Sunday, she lived with a group of other young girls in a Mädchenheim, a home for factory workers run by nuns, who controlled their lives. The book tells her story.
The Mädchenheim was one of several dispersed throughout the valley, adjacent to factories, in this case the Leglerareal in Diesbach, which, as an abandoned structure is the location of the Klöntal Triennale in 2024. The Mädchenheim itself was the home of artist Jürgen Zumbrunnen during the 1980s, when it was part of a cultural scene that centred around the Palais Jaune, located in the factory’s administrative centre. More about this history can be read in Claudia Kock Marti’s essay on the Triennale website.