Stapferhaus Exhibition Explores the Tension Between Risk and Public Safety

The Stapferhaus museum in Lenzburg has opened an interactive exhibition examining the relationship between public safety and personal risk tolerance. Titled "Security. A Risk?", the installation transforms the Aargau cultural centre into a testing facility where visitors navigate simulated high-risk environments and decision-making stations.

The exhibition integrates long-term sociological research on public safety perception in Switzerland. According to Dirk Baier, head of the Institute for Delinquency and Crime Prevention at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, studies conducted by ETH Zurich since the early 1990s document a substantial rise in perceived safety across the country. Insecurity levels dropped from 30 percent of survey respondents in the 1990s to between five and ten percent in recent years.

Recent data, however, indicates a reversal of this trend. Baier notes that subjective insecurity has begun to climb again, a change he attributes largely to the prominent media coverage of international crises and heightened geopolitical tensions rather than an objective increase in local crime.

The exhibition features various interactive zones, including a safety laboratory, a gambling scenario, and a control room designed to test individual boundary limits. Through these settings, the museum prompts visitors to weigh personal freedom against state or technological surveillance measures, such as public camera installation.

According to the museum, the concept avoids prescribing fixed answers on acceptable risk thresholds, aiming instead to foster debate on how individuals and societies continually renegotiate safety standards. The Stapferhaus has previously focused on contemporary societal topics, including monetary policy, national identity, and environmental themes.

Written by Sandy van Dongen sandy.vandongen@alpineweekly.com