Title: Zürcher Bewegung, Band 32
Photographer(s): Olivia Heussler, Malou Muralt, Dieter Oswald, Daniel Schäublin, Andi Zai,Klaus Rosza, Gertrund Vogler, Koni Nordmann, Christof Egle and various photographers.
Writer(s):
Designer(s): Olivia Heussler, Malou von Muralt, Dieter Oswald, Daniel Schäublin und Andi Zai
Editor (s) : Fredy Meier
Publisher(s): Edition Patrick Frey, Zürich, Switzerland
Year: 2020
Print run: 1000
Language(s): German
Pages: 120
Size: 21 x 30 cm
Binding: Softcover
Edition: 1st 1981, Verlag ohne Zukunft, Zürich, Switzerland
Print: Ropress Zürich, Switzerland
Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: Switzerland, 1980
ISBN: 9783907236116
https://www.editionpatrickfrey.com/en/books/zuercher-bewegung-band-32-fredy-meier
For decades, young people tried to get the city to fund an autonomous youth center. All their proposals were stonewalled. Then, in 1980, a CHF 60 million loan was approved to renovate Zurich’s opera house: a bundle was to be forked out for “serious” bourgeois culture and zilch for the city’s youth. That was the last straw: On May 30, 1980, protestors held a demonstration in front of the opera house that turned into a street riot and eventually a city-wide protest movement spearheaded and fueled by autonomous groups. Over the course of the following weeks, the protests turned uglier, and so did the police’s aggressive attempts to quell the commotion.
Zürcher Bewegung, Band 32 (Zurich Movement, Vol. 32), published by Verlag ohne Zukunft in 1981, is an illustrated timeline of the “Opera House Riots” that wreaked havoc in Zurich back in 1980. The book opens with the violent climax of the protests, the demo in front of the opera house, and closes on December 31 of that year with a stink bomb attack during the New Year's Eve performance of a play at Zurich’s Schauspielhaus.
The photographers shot the pictures and edited the book. They wrote: "The book: not souvenirs to dull our own recollections, but raw photos of a battered city. Today, thanks to beautiful chaos, we’re in a state of emergency".