The last institute days of this year took place from November 12 to 14 at the Kulturkloster Altdorf. The rooms of the former Capuchin monastery, which was founded in 1681, are now used to host a wide variety of educational and cultural events. Visitors also have the opportunity to engage in artistic activities in the studio, take part in yoga and meditation classes, and enjoy the magnificent view of Altdorf.
In his opening speech, Prof. Dr. Boris Previšić presented the program for the Institute Days to the participants. He then handed over to the main organizer of the “Alpine Future Literacy” workshop, Prof. Dr. Jens Badura. The AFL workshop focused on infrastructure obsolescence and related issues concerning the handling, dismantling, and reuse of unused infrastructure such as bunkers, cable cars, and energy infrastructure in the Alpine region.
Prof. Dr. Silvia Berger Ziauddin, Managing Director of the Historical Institute at the University of Bern, was invited as a guest speaker. She began her presentation with fond memories of her youth in the canton of Uri and then turned to the main topic of her presentation – research into the bunker with the designation A1790. Today, it is known as the “Swiss Fort Knox” data bunker. The history of the mountain tunnels near Saanen, where the data center is located, begins during the Second World War. The bunker was built in strict secrecy for the needs of a secret airfield. During the Cold War, the army expanded the bunker in the rock massif, continuing its strategies of secrecy and military security. In addition to military defense readiness, Swiss Fort Knox is now associated with other typically Swiss aspects such as the mighty mountain landscape and the Heidi myth. However, the actual functioning of the database remains top secret. The employees of Swiss Fort Knox are unknown in the municipality of Saanen. The company's image fits perfectly with its location near the luxurious resorts of Saanen and Gstaad, as the database allows private individuals and companies to store their secret data.
After a response lecture in which doctoral student Kiah Lian Rutz discussed her own field research for her doctoral project on the disappearance of snow and winter in the Surselva region, a lively discussion ensued, followed by dinner at the local restaurant Zum schwarzen Löwen.
We began the second day with an artistic touch at the Haus für Kunst Uri, where Chantal Küng guided us through the temporary exhibition “There is a Sun” by artists Talar Aghbashian and Maya Hottarek. In the exhibition rooms, we were able to observe the evolving dialogue between Aghbashian's paintings and Hottarek's ceramic works and cyanotypes, which deal with the representation of the landscape and our relationship to it. The artists' works are complemented by selected paintings by Heinrich Danioth in the genre of landscape painting.
The visit to the Haus für Kunst Uri was followed by lunch at the Schützenmatt restaurant and then the ascent to the Kulturkloster, where the afternoon program continued. This began with a lecture by the new member of the institute's management team, Ass.-Prof. Dr. Thekla Brunkert. In her presentation on primary health care, she focused on her own research projects dealing with current and future health care. In the first part of the presentation, participants learned about the AdvantAGE project, which aims to establish transitional care for older people at home by specialized medical staff. In the second part of the presentation, Brunkert focused on working with local communities and implementing the concept of social prescribing in urban and rural environments in the canton of Uri. In this case, the project is aimed in particular at people with social problems (e.g., lonely people) and their involvement in activities offered by the local community.
The program continued with two colloquiums and a mutual exchange of research results, barriers in research, etc. between the participants. In the first colloquium, student Céline Burget from the University of Basel presented her master's thesis. In her work in the field of literary studies, she focuses on poems about the river landscape in the context of nature and water literature, based on Esther Kinsky's poetry collection FlussLand Tagliamento. The second colloquium was devoted to Dr. Elisabeth Schubiger's presentation of her ethnographic study of small hydropower plants, their maintenance, and adaptation in the context of highly polarized and morally charged debates about energy transitions. Schubiger is particularly interested in how local communities in today's world pragmatically maintain the operation of small hydropower plants, focusing on examples from the Bernese Oberland. The evening ended with a dinner together at the Nussbäumli restaurant.
The last day was somewhat shorter and began with a presentation by Dr. Marc Philip Seidel from the Burghalde Museum in Lenzburg. In his project, Seidel examines how cultural production in Lenzburg around 1900 contributed to the emergence of the concept of homeland. In this transdisciplinary project, the intertwining of classical historical methods with artificial intelligence plays a central role in understanding how tradition and innovation influence each other and thus shape the formation of collective memory and the perception of culture. After the presentation, discussion, and closing remarks, this year's Institute Days ended with lunch at the Tamil Unavakam restaurant.
Published on 20. November 2025
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