Demian Lienhard
Landis & Gyr Stiftung Residency
2021
Demian Lienhard is a Swiss writer and novelist. His first novel I‘m the girl my mother warned me about is situated in the turbulent 80s and 90s, and tells the story of Alba Doppler and her friends who survive the world’s biggest drug scene at that time; The Platzspitz and the Letten in Zurich. In 2020, he was awarded the Swiss Literature Award.
While in London, Demian working on his second novel Mr. Goebbels Jazz Band. Based on a true story, it recounts the history of German radio propaganda against Britain during WWII. The story centres around musicians of a Jazz orchestra founded by the German Ministry of Propaganda itself (headed by Joseph Goebbels) who played and produced Jazz for the German propaganda station Germany Calling, as well as the chief radio commentator William Joyce. Joyce, in Britain better known as Lord Haw-Haw, had multiple and contradictory identities: Born in New York, brought up in Galway and London, he was an Irish Protestant and – without having ever acquired British citizenship – a British Nationalist. He eventually became – together with Oswald Mosley – one of the most important Fascist leaders of Britain. In 1939, a few days before the outbreak of the war, Joyce fled to Berlin. Within months he became the most famous English-speaking radio commentator of wartime: the BBC estimated that Lord Haw-Haw
reached about 6 million listeners in Britain every day and about 24 million sporadically. William Joyce was the last man in Britain to be condemned to death for High Treason. He was hanged on 3 January 1946 at Wandsworth Prison, London.
Landis & Gyr Stiftung, Switzerland
The Landis & Gyr foundation awards studio scholarships to Swiss artists and cultural professionals in London, Budapest, Sofia and Zug. Its London-based residency partnership with Acme was established in 1987, and provides six month long work/live opportunities for ten Swiss artists per year. Artists are selected for the programme directly by Landis & Gyr Stiftung and must demonstrate a track record of achievement in their field. Over two hundred visual artists, curators, writers, musicians and composers have benefitted from the programme. Residencies are based in Stepney, E1 and are available to Swiss residents only
For more information visit lg-stiftung.ch.
