Women in Alpine Transhumance

Created by twins Celia and Nathalie Sidler, the multimedia installation “Rastär” invites visitors to discover the place of women in Alpine transhumance and to explore the world of female farmers and Alpine products in new ways — a reality whose roots in the Val Bregaglia extend far beyond the reach of photographic memory.

Since the late 19th century, however, photography has helped to capture fragments of this past, as evidenced by the photograph taken by Fulvio Reto (the pseudonym of Agostino Fasciati) in 1930. The Bregaglia-based photographer captured for posterity the image of a woman (Margherita Clalüna Ruinelli) milking goats.

Fasciati’s photo and the work of the Sidler sisters restore dignity and remembrance to the labour of women, which had long remained almost invisible.