100 x Swissness

SCV MEMBERS PORTRAIT ART PROJECT

This project began with a simple idea: let’s really see each other.

Led by artist and SCV committee member, Patrick Rychner, the 100 x Swissness Arts Project set out to photograph 100 members of the Swiss Club of Victoria (SCV) – not just as faces, but as people with stories, histories, and quirks worth sharing. The aim was connection. Members meeting members. Old hands crossing paths with newer faces. Conversations starting where they might not have before.

That matters, especially in a club where many long-time members are aging and many newer ones are second-generation Swiss who don’t yet know the people who built this club. A portrait, it turns out, is a good excuse to stop, look, and ask a question.

Each participant brought one object to their photo session – something Swiss, something personal, or something that simply says, ‘this is me’. These small details do a lot of the talking. They spark stories, memories, and the kind of exchanges that keep a community alive.

Shot in a consistent studio style, the portraits form a growing body of work – part exhibition, part archive, part family album. Together, they capture a snapshot of Swiss life in Australia.

The vernissage of this exhibition was part of Open House, celebrating the 127^th anniversary of the foundation of the SCV. The exhibition is open on 14 & 15 and 20 & 21 February, from 11am to 4pm, on the second floor of the Swiss Club of Victoria, 89 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.