Flavia Brändle, Margrit Linder (ed.)
Handbesen aus aller Welt / Hand Brooms Across Cultures
June 2025, ca. 288 Seiten pages, mainly 140 colour illustrations, softcover, 16 x 23.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-03069-040-4
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Im Besengebiet / Field of Brooms
A tribute to the art of hand-brooms
Exhibition at the Schweizer Strohmuseum in Wohlen (AG): 27 April 2025 to 1 March 2026
In the Bernese Oberland and in other places throughout Switzerland women make hand-brooms out of purple moor grass. Similar brooms are to be found in, among other countries, Greece, Spain, China, India, Ghana or on the Cook Islands. The oldest examples, more than 3000 years of age, come from Egypt. As a material that is apparently without value, its artful handling for this everyday item is astonishing. This richly illustrated book explores traditional production techniques for tied hand-brooms, their global parallels, their significance in everyday life and their ecological dimension, for example, their connection to specific landscapes. Experts point out the potential inherent in the use of local materials, and we can learn something from earlier uses.
With contributions by Meret Ernst, Claude Lichtenstein, Gabriele Lutz, Adrian Möhl, Jasper Morrison, Chrissie Muhr, et al.