UPCOMING EVENTS
Swiss Community Events Calendar
Available for the first time, a comprehensive calendar to download with all Swiss events in the UK - from music concerts to art exhibitions to talks to just having a cuppa.
If you know of an event that is not listed on the calendar below of the PDF download, please do let us know so that we can keep it as up to date as possible:
Send us your eventPhase I: Call for candidates
05.10.2024 – 15.02.2025
Candidate eligibility is confirmed by the Swiss Embassy London
Phase II: Call for votes
11.04.2025 – 11.05.2025
Candidate profiles published in Swiss Review UK Regional Pages Issue II and on this website.
Phase III: Elected UK Delegates ratified at the FOSSUK AGM in June 2025
What makes an eligible candidate?
A candidate must be a Swiss citizen living in the UK and registered with the Swiss Embassy London. They must be fluent in either German or French, which are the languages at the OSA Council meetings, and be willing to participate in two yearly meetings of the OSA Council online and in Switzerland.
All candidates standing for the next term have to be independently vetted for elibility by the Swiss Embassy London or provide evidence or registration via Online desk for Swiss nationals residing abroad (admin.ch). Applications to stand for elections will close on the 15th February 2025.
Swiss Coffee Morning – on Zoom!
Also scho wieder ä Wuche verbi. Morn am 11am isch wieder Kaffeeklatsch. Mir händ immer Spass. Also mitmachä.
Meeting ID 8111 701 1613
Code 731576
Please download the Zoom app onto your laptop or tablet to join.
NSH Fondue Dinner at St Moritz Restaurant in Soho | Wednesday 23 October 2024, 19.00–21.30
This event is now fully booked. To put your name on the waitlist, please email us (info@newhelveticsociety.org). Kind regards, the NSH committee
Accompanying Events & Performances:
Thursday 24 Oct | 6 – 9pm | Private View and Live Performance book here
Saturday 26 Oct | 6 – 8pm | Live Performance book here
Sunday 27 Oct | 6 – 8pm | Screening followed by Artist’s Q&A book here
*Please note: This exhibition & accompanying events are free and open to all. So that we can monitor capacity for the accompanying events and performances, please book via the relevant links.
Trigger warning: This exhibition includes references to sexual assault and drug use.
‘The 13th Zodiac’ by John Costi & Rhett Nicholl (EvilTwin)
25 – 27 October 2024 | 10am – 6pm
The Swiss Church London presents ‘The 13th Zodiac’, a multimedia installation and live performance by long-time collaborators and 2024 residency recipients, John Costi and Rhett Nicholl, AKA ‘EvilTwin’. They invite the audience to explore the intersections of art, trauma and healing, rewriting narratives of complex, toxic masculinity and scrutinising wider systems of societal oppression, including class and criminal justice systems.
The title references both artists’ birthdays, which fall under Ophiuchus, the rarely acknowledged 13th sign of the Zodiac. Also known as the serpent bearer, a god of medicine and so adept in the art of healing, he could return souls from the underworld. This ability was learned from a snake on the river Styx, the main river leading to Hades.
These are fitting themes for Costi and Nicholl, whose personal journeys have involved battling addiction, navigating prison and seeking redemption through art.
The multimedia installation, including a film and accompanying performances, traces a spiritual journey of surrender and transcendence, with elements drawn from the 12-step recovery model, the Zodiac, and pantheistic traditions. The film’s protagonist, ‘E.T,’ embodies the struggles and dualities that both artists have faced.
In a quest to find himself and ‘reset the zodiac’, E.T speeds through interdimensional spaces, meeting mythical characters along the way. He confronts past trauma, including a powerful scene set in a North London council estate where Costi experienced a life-altering sexual assault.
By reclaiming the location as a “Museum of Injury”, the artists turn pain into a poignant symbol of healing.
The film and accompanying score are shown with a tunnel-like installation featuring ‘patchwork blackout blinds’, representing inherited realities and ancestral wounds.
EvilTwin have adopted London’s transport networks as tributaries of the river Styx, enlisted actors and musicians with lived experience and drawn on their professional roles in social health care for the presentation that includes printmaking, sculpture, restricted legal documents, family artefacts and archival materials, alongside the immersive installation, performance and film.
EvilTwin’s residency at the Swiss Church culminates in a 4-day showcase featuring live musical and theatrical performances that utilise the Swiss Church’s unique architecture and acoustics.
In this new series of webinars organised with our partner easyvote, political information, which can sometimes seem complex, will be explained in a simple, accessible and neutral way for each vote. This should help make Swiss politics understandable to everyone, whatever their age or level of political knowledge.
The link is published here on the day of the webinar:
https://www.swisscommunity.org/en/offers-events/offers-for-young-people-aged-15-25/webinars-popular-votes free webinar on popular votes
The webinar is free of charge. The webinar will be recorded and available on the OSA website up until two weeks after the vote.
More about the webinars on the SwissCommunity.org website.
Unione Ticinese (UT), a historic Swiss society in London marking its 150th anniversary, has comissioned a new play (see Swiss Review Regional edition 2/2024).
Performances and matinees from the 30th of October to 2nd November at the Cockpit Theatre.
Written, produced, and performed by Swiss Italian artists based in London and Ticino, the production explores emigration and womanhood themes, fostering connections between Swiss and international communities.
Selected from 11 submissions in an open call competition, ‘Valchera’s’ by Lea Ferrari (Ticino) won the commission.
The Cockpit Theatre Schedule for Valchera’s:
Wed 30th Oct: Evening performance at 7:30pm
Thu 31st Oct: Matinée performance at 1:30pm & Evening performance at 7:30pm
Fri 1st Nov: Evening performance at 7:30pm
Sat 2nd Nov: Matinée performance at 1:30pm & Evening performance at 7:30pm
Visit the https://www.valcheras.com/
Tickets: £12.50 – £16.50
Running time:
75 minutes
This show is not suitable for children under twelve and we recommend that children under sixteen should be accompanied by an adult.
Content warning: infrequent explicit language, mention of violence and death.
The Christmas Party will be held on the first of November 2024 from 2:30 at Saughtonhall Community Centre.
More information will come closer to the event.
The service on the first Sunday of the month includes communion. Everyone is invited to receive communion. We are also accompanied by our choir at the service on the first Sunday. People of all denominations, faith groups or none, firm believers as well as the critical minded and spiritual seekers are welcome.
Sermons are preached in English. We provide printed copies of the sermons, and large-print versions too for those who would like them.
November 3, Communion Service
November 17, Requiem Service with choir
December 1, Advent service with choir
December 15, Carol Concert (5pm)
Music is an integral part of our services and is used to enhance and uplift the spiritual themes of the services. We sing a range of music-including traditional and some modern hymns. All hymns are printed in our Order of Service Booklet. German hymns are normally taken from the Gesangbuch Der Evangelisch-reformierten Kirchen der deutschsprachigen Schweiz. French hymns are taken from Psaumes et Cantiques- hymn book of the Protestant Church in Canton Lausanne.
Music is mainly lead on the church’s Swiss-built Späth organ played by our Director of Music, Peter Yardley-Jones. Sometimes we will use our Steinway piano.
Full details about all our services are on the services agenda below or phone
the Church office on 020 7836 1418.
Not all of you may know that the UT looks after several graves in two cemeteries in North London: East Finchley and Highgate with a special fund, in the name of Vittorio Abate. Ian Giuliani helpfully compiled this diagram, you will recognise several Ticinese family names. The VA Trustee and team visited the graves in September for annual maintenance. Thank you for keeping up this important historical collection of Ticinese life in London! Peter Barber wrote an article about the history of the graves. You can read it here.
November 3 @ 14:00 - 16:00: East Finchley Cemetery. Meeting at the Society’s graves on Roman Way at 2 pm. Just turn up - Please contact us for any queries: https://utlondon.org/event/visit-to-ut-graves/.
The AGM of the Swiss Club Edinburgh will be held on the 9th of November at 4pm at Saughtonhall Community Centre.
After the AGM cheese and wine will be offered.
Please let us know when you like to attend.
