Spuren lesen – Zukunft schreiben

The three-part workshop series on the history and future of Laufenburg

How do borders, migration, and forgotten relics shape our present? To accompany the exhibition “Mo Diener – Hologram,” the Rehmann Museum invites you to a three-part workshop series that combines scholarly research with artistic fiction. In September 2026, we’ll transform Laufenburg into a living archive: On two historical city walks—led by the Cantonal Archaeology Office and freelance curator Vera Ryser—we’ll sharpen our eyes for the hidden, for historical ruptures, and for inconspicuous traces in the urban landscape. In the subsequent writing workshop with author and professor Ann Mbuti, these impressions will become the material for participants’ own speculative stories. A playful bridge between fact and fiction that invites us to rethink the town’s history.

Archaeological Treasure Hunt in Laufenburg with Benjamin Höpfer and Reto Bucher (Aargau Cantonal Archaeology)
Wednesday, September 16, 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
From the museum straight into Laufenburg’s past: On this archaeological walk, starting at the Rehmann Museum, we’ll delve into the hidden layers beneath the town. The earliest traces date back to the Bronze Age and show that the area attracted people from very early on. Artifacts from this period have been found at various sites within the municipality, most recently beneath today’s Marktgasse and in the basement of the Schiff Museum. Roman remains are also abundant. Excavations by the Aargau Cantonal Archaeology Department have documented Roman buildings that were part of a small-town settlement. Food storage and warehousing must have played a significant role here, because due to the rapids of the “Laufen” River, goods transported on the Rhine had to be transferred from one ship to another in Laufenburg as early as Roman times. The settlement may thus have served as a transshipment point for Rhine shipping. In the late Middle Ages, the Siechebifang—as the name suggests—was the site of the Laufenburg infirmary. Its cellar was uncovered during excavations in 2014. The backfill contained a large number of fully preserved ceramic vessels, which were primarily used for food storage—offering a unique insight into a medieval medical institution. In Laufenburg’s old town, the cantonal archaeological service has documented medieval and early modern townhouses as part of renovation projects in recent years.
The archaeological walk not only takes visitors back to past eras in Laufenburg but also demonstrates how archaeology works as a science. It explores what conclusions can be drawn from archaeological remains, how the past is reconstructed, and how a vivid picture of Laufenburg’s history can be painted.

Reto Bucher is an archaeologist and head of the Medieval and Building Research Division at the Aargau Cantonal Archaeology Department. His book *Arme Siechen!* is dedicated to the Laufenburg infirmary, one of the few medieval infirmaries in Switzerland that are documented today.

Benjamin Höpfer is an archaeologist and research associate at the Aargau Cantonal Archaeology Office. His areas of expertise are Middle Bronze Age settlements and landscape archaeology. He lives with his family in Laufenburg.

The Urban Space as a Multi-Layered Archive with independent curator Vera Ryser
Wednesday, September 23, 6–7 p.m.

This walk through Laufenburg invites participants to interpret the urban space as a multi-layered archive. The focus is on questions of boundary-drawing and migration, which continue to shape the city’s history to this day.

Laufenburg’s historical division serves as a starting point for exploring how forms of boundaries, separation, rapprochement, and coexistence have changed over time and how these have been inscribed in the urban landscape. Building on this, the focus turns to the migration stories that have shaped Laufenburg. They tell of movement, exchange, and change, and their traces remain visible in many ways to this day.

The walk combines a fact-based approach to local history with an awareness of what is often overlooked in the urban landscape: inconspicuous clues, breaks, and overlaps that tell of past events and experiences. Participants are encouraged to interpret these traces and use them as a starting point for their own questions and imaginings.

Drawing on Mo Diner’s artistic practice, which combines archaeological research with speculative narrative techniques, the Public Walk also serves as preparation for the subsequent writing workshop. The impressions gathered serve as material not only to reconstruct history but also to reflect on it further and retell it anew.

Vera Ryser lives and works in Zurich. She studied Comparative Literature at the University of Geneva (BA) and at the Free University of Berlin (MA). She works as a freelance curator, exhibition organizer, researcher, educator, and lecturer. Her interests include collaborative practices, the aesthetics of transformation, and representations of knowledge cultures. She explores decolonial practices, feminist resistance, and the politics of memory, and seeks to renegotiate these themes beyond the seemingly clear boundaries of practice and theory.

Vera Ryser is a founding member of the collectives “Das Wandbild muss weg!” and “Studio for Memory Politics.” She also teaches art and cultural theory at various art colleges and universities in Switzerland.


Hidden Stories—A Writing Workshop with Ann Mbuti
Wednesday, September 30, 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

What if an old object were the beginning of a new story?
Mo Diener connects the past and the future through speculative narratives and archaeological investigations. This writing workshop builds on that: We’ll take objects, found items, everyday things, and relics from Lauenburg and beyond as our starting point and ask what stories they haven’t yet told. Whose voices are missing? What lies hidden beneath the prevailing narrative?
Through creative writing exercises and simple “world-building” methods, we’ll explore together how fiction can be a tool for reexamining history and retelling it in new ways.
Inspired by artistic and activist practices—such as those of Mo Diener—we’ll proceed playfully, step by step: speculatively, associatively, and sometimes utopically.

The workshop is aimed at both those interested in writing and anyone who, after taking the guided tours of Laufenburg, has become curious about reexamining the town’s history.
No writing experience is necessary; just an interest in language, history, and the unexpected.
At the end of the workshop, participants will take home concrete writing tools—and perhaps the beginning of a story that has yet to be told.

Ann Mbuti (*1990) is a professor of process design and an independent writer with a focus on contemporary art, pop culture, and processes of social transformation. Her work operates at the intersection of theory and practice, with a particular interest in the interplay between art, discourse, and public spheres. In addition to writing, her practice includes curatorial work, lectures, moderation, and workshops, as well as the conduct of interdisciplinary research projects.
Her projects and publications address topics such as contemporary mythologies, science fiction, and the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction. In doing so, she examines cultural narratives and the potential of artistic creative processes to catalyze social, political, and ecological change.
Ann lives and works in Basel, Switzerland.



Admission
Guided tour: 15 CHF, reduced rate 10 CHF
Writing workshop: 25 CHF, reduced rate 20 CHF
All three events: 50 CHF—no further discounts.


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.