Sils Museum, Sils

Starting June 11, 2026, the Sils Museum will present the exhibition

“Toward Other Skies”
Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908–1942)
Journalist, photojournalist, writer

In 2025, the estates of Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart will be inscribed on the “Memory of the World” (Memory of the World). In doing so, UNESCO honors two pioneers of the travel diary—journalists and photographers Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Ella Maillart—who, beginning in the 1930s, revolutionized the genre of travel literature, which had until then been dominated by men. Independent, courageous, and driven by an inquisitive spirit and a critical, reflective eye, they undertook expeditions to remote regions of the world and into conflict zones. In May 1939, they set out together on a road trip from Geneva to Afghanistan. Their photographs and travelogues resonated deeply in the media of their time and remain relevant documents to this day.

The Sils Museum is taking this tribute as an opportunity to dedicate its 2026/27 exhibition to the journalist, photographer, and writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach. At the heart of the exhibition are Schwarzenbach’s photographs, diaries, reports, letters, and literary texts—testimonies to both her extensive travels and her connection to Sils. The exhibition explores the tension between her restlessness and thirst for adventure, her commitment as a journalist and anti-fascist on the one hand, and her emotional instability and longing for stability and a sense of home on the other. The exhibition design and a variety of presentation formats bring these facets into relation with one another and place them within a historical context. The focus is on the period between 1935, when Schwarzenbach made Sils Baselgia her adopted home, and her death in 1942.

The exhibition explores this extraordinary woman through three thematic areas:

- Sils Maria – Refuge and Place of Longing
- Reporting Trips – Photographs and Reports
- The Magic of Travel


This exhibition at the Sils Museum is part of the joint project “Friedrich Nietzsche and Annemarie Schwarzenbach – UNESCO Memory of the World in Sils.” In addition to the Sils Museum, the Nietzsche House, the Biblioteca Engiadinaisa, and the zeit:fluss Kulturfest are participating and dedicating three exhibitions, numerous lectures, readings, discussions, film screenings, and cultural walks to the two figures, as well as a chamber opera and a staged dialogue. The complete program can be found on a special page at Sils Tourism (scroll to the bottom of the page).