Montreux Jazz Festival, 1-16 July 2011.
Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Organizers of the Montreux Jazz Festival released the poster for the 45th edition of the world-renowned music festival 2 December. The poster is designed by Swiss artist Francis Baudevin, an artist from Bulle, canton Vaud, who lives and works in Lausanne.
The Festival breaks with tradition to choose an abstract painting for its poster, only the second time in its history to do so. Baudevin is currently showing at Mark Mueller Gallery in Zurich until 18 December.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Geneva political party MCG just cannot get its poster right for the 28 November popular referendum vote on shipping out foreigners who commit serious crimes. The Tribune de Geneve announced Tuesday 2 November it is billing the party for copyright infringement for using a photo from the newspaper on a poster.
First the party, which labels itself “not left, not right, Geneva first”, was blasted by regional media in October for using the poster to inflame racism, with its excerpts from cantonal police reports that give nationalities of people arrested.
Then the Geneva government, the Conseil d’Etat, told the party to change its poster because of a line and photo at the bottom considered to be potentially damaging to the national interest: “He wants to destroy Switzerland” next to a photo of Libya’s leader.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Geneva Thursday morning rounded up 26 Romanians who were begging in the streets, public radio RSR reports, in a sweep of the city that involved four police vans and 30 officers. The move was linked to the upcoming federal vote, 8 February, on extending the free movement of people to Romania and Bulgaria, in an effort to reduce a popular negative perception of traveling people, notably Roms, and some other groups from these countries. Also Thursday, the Federal Council in Bern issued an unusually strong statement against racist overtones in political advertising for the 8 February vote.
