Elisabeth Joris (*1946) is a freelance historian and pioneer in Swiss women’s history and gender studies. Since the 1970s, Joris has been actively engaged in advocating for women’s rights, women’s suffrage, and gender equality, promoting a feminist perspective in historiography. Her 1980 reference work Frauengeschichte(n) – Documents from Two Centuries on the Situation of Women in Switzerland has significantly contributed to the study and communication of the socio-political role of women in Swiss history. Joris is regularly consulted as an expert for exhibitions, documentaries, and feature films, including the film The Divine Order by Petra Volpe and the exhibition Frauen.Rechte at the Swiss National Museum. Joris grew up in Visp and has lived in Zurich since 1966.
Open Call
Write up to 96 characters for women! The BILLBOARD will serve as the impressive infrastructure for changing content. The selected entries will be displayed on the BILLBOARD for up to one month. The 5x18 meter large BILLBOARD will be positioned facing the tracks.
Over the course of the project, the entries will develop a collective vision—sometimes provocative, sometimes humorous, sometimes critical, sometimes poetic, always feminist. The BILLBOARD will spark discussions and encourage reflection and change in existing structures and ways of thinking.
Content
The BILLBOARD renders visible the perspectives, experiences, and realities of women. From a feminist perspective, we aim to highlight the following topics, among others: care, body, solidarity, stereotypes, womanhood, inclusion, power, politics, generations, work, money, climate, and nature.
Whether through clear statements, wordplay, aphorisms, subtle ambiguities, painful experiences, statistical evidence, short poems, tragicomic facts, clever word juxtapositions, unsettling truths, surprising “aha” moments, stirring thoughts, profound questions, or touching honesty — we want to know what moves you!
Form
Your entry should consist of individual text characters (letters, numbers, special characters). If your statement requires a specific arrangement of characters, you can show this directly in the downloadable flyer and send it to us by mail. Print our flyer or pick one up at one of our Flyer Stations. You can also submit your entry online.
Requirements
Entries in all languages are welcome. Your entry should be self-created and original. Existing slogans or political group slogans, quotes from literature or art, or other existing texts may not be submitted. Discriminatory or racist entries will not be considered.
Visibility
Located at a central site along the railway tracks between Zurich main station and Langstrasse, the BILLBOARD enjoys unique visibility: up to half a million commuters per day will carry these messages into the world. The changing content will also be highly visible to pedestrians on the Negrelli bridge and Zollstrasse. Thus, the BILLBOARD will temporarily shape the cityscape and sustainably change the social dialogue on current feminist issues.
Participate
Information
Participation
Anyone with a connection to Switzerland can participate—whether as an individual, group, collective, organization, institution, or other association. Participation is available online via the submission form or by mail with the completed flyer.
Selection Process
A jury will select and curate the most compelling entries for publication on the BILLBOARD.
Elisabeth Joris
Laura de Weck
Laura de Weck (*1981) is a renowned actress, screenwriter, and columnist. She grew up in Paris, Hamburg, and Zurich, where she attended the University of Music and Theater. After graduating in acting, she was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg for two years. Since 2007, she has worked as a freelance writer and playwright, critically examining issues such as family, gender, and migration in her work. Her plays, including Lieblingsmenschen (2007) and Für die Nacht (2011), have been performed internationally and translated into several languages. De Weck became widely known for her scenic columns in the Tages-Anzeiger, exploring the intersection of politics and private life. Since 2023, she has been hosting the Literature Club and has been a jury member for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize since 2024. She lives with her family in Hamburg.
Mirjam Fischer
Mirjam Fischer (*1969) lives and works as an independent editor and book producer in the fields of art, photography, and design in Zurich. Fischer studied art and architectural history as well as modern German literature at the University of Bern. From 1998 to 2007, she was responsible for the annual award for the Most Beautiful Swiss Books in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (BAK). She held positions as the publishing director at Edition Patrick Frey and as the head of publications at the Museum of Design Zurich. Since 2013, she has been the founder and owner of the independent book production company mille pages. With her many years of experience in book conception, realization, and publishing, Fischer is a key figure in the Swiss art and cultural scene. Since 2021, she has been the president of the expert committee and a member of the board of trustees of the Bern Design Foundation.
Fatima Moumouni
Fatima Moumouni (*1992) is an award-winning spoken word poet, presenter, and columnist. Since 2011, Moumouni, who now resides in Zurich, has been performing on various stages across German-speaking countries, addressing issues like racism, social injustice, and feminism in her work. In 2022, she was awarded the Salzburger Stier for her joint evening program with Laurin Buser. Their debut play Bullestress premiered at the Zurich Schauspielhaus in 2022, followed by Ich chan es Zündhölzli azünde in 2023. Moumouni has co-hosted Moumouni/Gültekin, Switzerland’s first post-migrant late-night show, and leads her progressive discussion series Die neue Unsicherheit at the Gessnerallee Zurich.
Sarah Akanji
Sarah Akanji (*1993) is a football player and politician for the Social Democratic Party (SP). Akanji is politically and actively committed to an inclusive society and regularly speaks on topics such as integration, equality, and social justice. From 2019 to 2023, she was a member of the Zurich Cantonal Council, where she advocated in particular against discrimination and for better educational opportunities for disadvantaged children. In 2016, Akanji co-founded the first women’s team at FC Winterthur, where she most recently worked as an assistant coach. Akanji lives in Winterthur.
Nelly Pilz (créatrices)
Nelly Pilz (*1984) is an architect based in Zurich. After graduating from ETH Zurich, she worked on social and cooperative housing projects and studied art history at the University of Zurich. With her office, studiopilz, she works in various collaborations on projects, competitions, and strategies that move between architecture and art. Since 2018, she has also been working part-time as a research assistant at the Mosayebi Chair at ETH Zurich. In 2023, she co-founded the association doublenegative.global, which develops strategies and products to optimize life cycles and related processes to reduce CO2 emissions in the art world. Since 2023, she has also been a board member of créatrices. studiopilz
Simone Spillmann (créatrices)
Simone Spillmann (*1995) is an architect and conceptual thinker. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Zurich, she graduated in 2022 with a degree in Architecture from ETH Zurich. Spillmann received the ESOP Scholarship for her Master’s studies and was nominated for the THEO Award with her thesis. In 2021, she was involved in the Fraumünsterhof21 project. Currently, in addition to working independently on art and architecture competitions, she is engaged in the field of urban planning. Spillmann’s work opens new perspectives on the everyday and finds expression in spaces, installations, photographs and words.
The selection criteria are thematic relevance and importance, as well as linguistic conciseness and expressiveness. The number and selection of entries will not by category. The jury process is not public.
Dates
Start of Open Call
September 19, 2024
Submission Deadline (Online or Postmarked)
October 31, 2024, 11:59 PM
Start of BILLBOARD
March 8, 2025
BILLBOARD Duration
March 2025 to March 2026
Terms of Participation
By participating, authors agree that their entries may be published on the BILLBOARD and the website under their given name, pseudonym, or anonymously, as preferred. Participants guarantee that they hold all rights to the entry. They release créatrices from any third-party claims regarding the use of the entry. Entries must include personal details and contact information. Multiple entries are allowed. The entries will be made available to créatrices for use in connection with the BILLBOARD project (display on the physical BILLBOARD at Wilden Platz for a yet-to-be-determined number of days, publication on the website for an indefinite period, dissemination, and publication in print for documentation and promotional purposes). The Open Call serves to develop content for the BILLBOARD; the physical implementation of the entries will be carried out by créatrices.
Gender-Specific Wording
We aim to focus the BILLBOARD on women, meaning all individuals who identify as women, namely cis, trans, and intersex women. For this reason, we have consciously chosen to use the term women in our Open Call.
Flyer Stations
Rote Fabrik, Zähringer, PBZ Schütze, PBZ Zentrum, PBZ Aussersihl, Duplikat Buch & Papier, Paranoia City Bookshop Zurich, Zollhaus, Art History Institute Library, Zurich Literature House, ETHZ Construction Library, Schaufensterklub
Contact
Initiators
The BILLBOARD is initiated by créatrices.ch — a network and association founded in 2017 that connects, curates, designs, and develops with the aim of making visible women’s achievements in the environment and life. The BILLBOARD is a follow-up initiative from FrauMünsterhof21. The idea for the BILLBOARD comes from WILLIPILZ — a collective of Nelly Pilz and Florence Willi. They work at the intersection of installation, mediation, and art, particularly focusing on urban space, inclusion, and equality.
The project team includes Tina Arndt, Simone Blum, Natalie Bringolf, Lena Hegger, Miyuki Inoue, Dominique Lorenz, Michèle Mambourg, Martyna Maniak-Hüsser, Anna Osterberg, Nelly Pilz, Yvonne Schneider, Simone Spillmann, Cornelia Staffelbach, Florence Willi, Barbara Wiskemann, Beatriz Würsch.
Location
The BILLBOARD will be installed at Wilden Platz, a small wilderness area between Zollstrasse and the SBB railway field in Zurich. The property is leased by the Kalkbreite Cooperative, to whom we are very grateful for their support!