Can neutrality bring about peace?

How can Swiss neutrality be reconciled with an active role in international peacebuilding? This event examines the tension between neutrality and international engagement and explores the possibilities and limitations for Switzerland as it works towards peace through mediation, conflict prevention and multilateral cooperation.

The focus is on the question of what concrete scope for action arises from the principle of neutrality, and to what extent neutrality can be understood as a prerequisite, an instrument or a framework for interpreting peacebuilding. What forms of international engagement does it enable, and where does it set limits?

To mark the first Swiss Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale in 2026, where the artist and scholar Denise Bertschi will present her long-term research project ‘State Fictions’, the event brings together perspectives from the fields of art, history and political science. Using the example of Switzerland’s participation in the Neutral Supervisory Commission for the Armistice in Korea (NNSC) since 1953, the evening will shed light on historical perspectives regarding the Swiss Army’s longest-running peace-building mission on the Korean Peninsula. What significance does neutrality hold in an increasingly globalised and war-torn world? And how is its relationship to peace, international responsibility and political engagement changing?

Programme

16:15 Welcome

16:30 Film screening: ‘State Fiction. Neutral Only on the Outside’ (Denise Bertschi, 70 mins, 2021)

17:45 Panel discussion with Prof. Dr Sacha Zala and Prof. Dr Denise Bertschi

19:00 Reception

A collaboration between the Swiss National Museum, Pro Helvetia and the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris.

The Swiss Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale has been commissioned by Pro Helvetia and curated by Claire Hoffmann and Tadeo Kohan (Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris).