With «Babi» Anna Froelicher explores the material and metaphorical significance of a seemingly immovable artefact: the Swiss tank barrier. Her audiovisual essay examines these ‘bulky relics’ of the military past. Froelicher follows the traces of these artefacts, whose presence in the landscape conveys a silent yet multi-layered narrative about security, threat and oblivion. The film moves between documentary and poetic reflection. It makes the weight of the tank barriers tangible – not only as physical mass, but also as a condensed layer of memory. In its encounter with materialities and shifts in meaning, «Babi» opens up a sensual approach to the tank barriers and their embedding in collective memory. The artistic exploration thus becomes a search for traces: an attempt to approach a recalcitrant object – and to discover resonances in its resistance. (Text: Sønke Gau)

«Babi» was created as part of the ethnographic-artistic research project «Materialisierte Erinnerungen in der Landschaft». The project focused on anti-tank obstacles (tank barriers) as forgotten artefacts of collective memory in the Swiss Mittelland.

Funded by the Zurich University of the Arts and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Exhibition curated by Barbara Ruf, Sønke Gau and Simon Graf, Forum Schlossplatz Aarau
CH 2025