Opening of the Archives

History of the work

At the Swiss Federal Archives on Archivstrasse 24 stands a work in wood by Urs-Peter Twellmann. The city dates it to 1997 and 1998 and calls it 'Öffnung der Archive' (Opening the Archives). In the artists' lexicon SIKART it appears with the full title 'Tatort Grauholz – Öffnung der Archive' and the year 1998; the Federal Archives are listed there among the locations of Twellmann's works.

SIKART counts the piece among a group of works that Twellmann titled with the word 'archive'. In them he cuts tree trunks so that they recall libraries or storerooms. His tools are chainsaws of various kinds; he himself calls the sawing apart of a trunk 'opening'.

Twellmann was born in Langnau im Emmental on 5 April 1959. He began training as a teacher, came to printmaking through photography and found his preferred technique in the woodcut. In 1983 he attended the School of Design in Bern, and in 1992 and 1993 he continued his training in New York at the Art Students League and the Manhattan Graphics Center. Since then sculpture in wood has been at the centre of his work. Around the same time as the Federal Archives piece he made the Gurten-Kugel (1998/99), compressing the demolition timber of the former hotel on the Gurten into a large sphere.

The Federal Archives are housed in a building erected under Theodor Gohl from 1896 to 1899. Until 1931 it shared the premises with the National Library; in 1980–1985 it was renovated and extended by an underground store, where most of the holdings are kept today. On site, take a close look at the cuts in the wood.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Urs-P. Twellmann (Gabrielle Obrist) · Wikipedia (de): Urs-Peter Twellmann · Wikipedia (de): Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv