Similarly, the value of stretching is revered by the Swiss. Specifically, stretching while naked and elevated and in public. In some countries you might be arrested for such behaviour, but here you are more likely to be immortalised in bronze:
And once you are appropriately warmed up, why not try a spot of tai chi?:
I'm sure all these statues (and all the other ones that you are yet to see) commemorate worthy things (like soldiers and dead people and actual things that the Swiss do hold dear), but really. If you are going to make art, and you want it to have a serious meaning, why not try to make it a little bit less funny looking?
4 comments:
I'm enjoying the introduction to Switzerland thanks Robyn. Can you translate the words at the bottom of the statue for us. Tell me, does the Swiss Army actually issue those little knives to its troops -- you know, with scissors, glass cutters and the little tool for getting stones out of horses' hooves?
Well. The naked stretching statue has no words, so you can look within yourself for the meaning of that one.
A lot of the letters from the men dancing in short dresses one have been pinched (not very Swiss. Maybe the bad weather made them fall off), meaning that there are only a few letters higgeldy piggeldy here and there. It's hard to even tell which bit is written in what language, so I can't tell you at all what it means (perhaps when my translating service gets home from shooting people I will see if he can help). Something to do with WW2, apparently.
The tai chi one says something along the lines of "the soldiers of Aargau 1914-1918, 1939-1945".
Yes, they do have Swiss Army Knives in the Swiss army. Fortunately these are not the only weapons they are armed with (see my bayonet rant). And for the sake of being a pedant, those things for getting stones out of horses feet are called hoof picks. I once won a trophy for my horse-riding talents (my only moment of sporting glory).
That's funny, I thought the Swiss were famously neutral in The War --why have a statue to its soldiers? Oh I get it, du spielst einen Streich, ja?
Well, I have only Tai Chi'd naked once, and I'm pretty sure no-one else witnessed it. Unlike when I had too much to drink, fell asleep on the way home, and did the full 108 movement Wang style Tai Chi set fully clothed at 1230 at night while waiting for a train that never came -- much to the bemusement of the security people, if they EVER bothered to check the tape.
I feel safe revealing these secrets to you and you alone.
As it turns out, if you mention their non-participation in the world wars to any Switzy (well, to mine, anyway), they are bound to get all huffy and then rant about the vital engagement of the Swiss army in patrolling and defending their own borders, and therefore in ensuring that their country remained safe for the duration. Apparently they also interned some Allied planes and shot down some german ones that violated their airspace, and made lots of plans to yield, run away and hide in the case of actual invasion by the Nazis. See also http://www.answers.com/topic/switzerland-during-the-world-wars
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