Nostalgia:
A Return to the Alps in Five Vignettes

In 1688 Johannes Hofer, a doctorate student at the University of Basel, coined the word “nostalgia” from the Greek “nostos” (homecoming) and “algos” (pain) after noticing an affliction that was affecting Swiss mercenaries serving abroad. The only known cures were opium, leeches or a visit to the Alps. This project explores a myriad of concepts related to nostalgia and the Alps, and how the Alps have been a site synonymous with health and wellness. The propaganda of the Alps and the longing for a return to nature became increasingly popular due in part to Rosseau’s influence on Romanticism, and in the age of Modernism it was manifested in the rise of sanatorium culture and the work and lives of literary figures such as Rilke, Fitzgerald and Mann. Industrialism and urbanism, and the subsequent pollution and disease it spawned, created a yearning for the pristine qualities of sun and air, and the Alps embodied the purity of a world untouched (albeit extremely manicured). This piece considers this history in context with our present-day pandemic-cum-endemic and climate catastrophic world which has once again propelled a desire to return to a world where we live akin with nature, although nostalgia for that place and time perhaps never truly existed. This film is the third in a trilogy of works exploring histories related to the Alps following The Year Without a Summer and Did you know blue had no name?

“Nostagia: A Return to the Alps in Five Vignettes” is made with the generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Villa Ruffieux Artist Residency at the Chateau Mercier. Special thanks to Lisa Conway for providing music for the film.