With “Fast ein Paradies – Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art,” the Museum Rietberg presents an exhibition that goes far beyond a traditional museum visit – it is a visual re-reading of history. International artists draw on archives, found materials, and their own visual languages to challenge and reframe colonial narratives. Photography is not treated as a static document, but as an active medium that shapes, shifts, and questions memory.
The exhibition unfolds across four chapters – from archival work and confrontation to care and speculative image-making – moving fluidly between photography, collage, film, and installation. Positions by Omar Victor Diop, Rosana Paulino, and Wendy Red Star reflect a global perspective in which history is not fixed, but continuously renegotiated.
And the setting? Hard to imagine a more fitting one: the Museum Rietberg is among Switzerland’s most impressive museums – beautifully situated in a park, surrounded by historic villas, a former coach house, and the iconic Emerald extension. A place rich in history and atmosphere, where even Richard Wagner once worked on “Tristan und Isolde.” Between Buddha figures, Chinese ceramics, and African masks, visitors experience a global shift in perspective within moments.
On view from April 16 to September 6, 2026, in Zurich.