At Easter the Swiss Customs Museum reopens its doors

On April 4, 2021, two exhibits on the activities of the FCA during the pandemic and wartime smugglers will reactivate the facility in Cantine di Gandria

On Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021, the Swiss Customs Museum in Cantine di Gandria will reopen its doors after its winter break and present two new special exhibitions to the public.
The first shows how Swiss customs experienced an “extra-ordinary” period during the first wave of the pandemic.

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The second one, entitled “A border between poverty and persecution”, shows the smuggling on the southern border during the Second World War.
For the Swiss Customs Museum, part of the Bern-based Federal Customs Administration (FCA), it was immediately clear that the period of the first wave of coronavirus should become the theme of an exhibition.

There is the digital happening of the Basel agency “eyeloveyou”

Together with the Basel agency “eyeloveyou”, a digital exhibition has been created, accessible via computer or smartphone, structured in 17 episodes offering glimpses of the working life of the FCA during the period of border closure in spring 2020.

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The most important topics related to the situation on the border at that time have been treated in a multimedia way, in all their facets, through texts, images and videos.
The digital exhibition can now be viewed at www.stra-ordinario.ch. A version will also be on display in a room of the Swiss Customs Museum.

Smugglers and refugees through unpublished material in Ticino

The special exhibition “A border between poverty and persecution” illustrates the life of hardship and renunciation of smugglers and refugees on the Italian-Swiss border during a great historical crisis.
This exhibition, conceived by Ticino historians Adriano Bazzocco and Stefania Bianchi and created for the museum by set designer Emmanuel Urban, displays archival material that is accessible to the public for the first time.

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In three rooms you can see glimpses of the traditional life of smugglers on the southern border during World War II.
A highlight of the exhibition are the moving stories of more or less well-known refugees who crossed the border from Italy in the Cantine di Gandria area during the war years.