Chribu

History of the work

In front of the regular facade of the Mobiliar building on Bundesgasse, a red-lacquered steel tube rises in several long, slanted loops and reaches up over several storeys. At the bottom the curves touch the pavement; at the top the tube ends freely in the air. The line looks like a stroke drawn with a pencil, only enlarged to gigantic size.

That is exactly how the Swiss artists' lexicon SIKART describes the intention: the „Chribel“, as SIKART calls the work, sets a monumentally enlarged drawn gesture against the strict grid of the new Mobiliar building. The City of Bern lists the title as „Chribu“, a photo on Wikimedia Commons as „Grosser Chribel“. SIKART dates the sculpture to 1985–1986 and gives lacquered steel as the material. The new headquarters was built around 1986; the building inventory mentions it in its entry on the neighbouring older building at Bundesgasse 33, whose courtyard fountain was renovated on that occasion.

Ueli Berger was born in Bern on 7 May 1937 and first trained as a house painter. In 1958, at the School of Applied Arts, he met Susi Wyss, whom he married in 1962. From 1965 to 1969 he headed design and development at the firm Trösch; from 1970 he worked independently as a designer and artist. With his wife he designed furniture now regarded as classics, such as the „Wolkenlampe“ (Cloud Lamp) of 1970. From 1982 to 1986 he taught sculptural design at ETH Zurich. According to SIKART he produced around a hundred designs for buildings and public spaces, about half of which were realised; in Bern he also drew up the overall concept for the artistic design of the Bahnhofplatz in 1979.

Berger died in Bern on 8 November 2008. In 2010 Susi and Ueli Berger received the Swiss Grand Prix Design, he posthumously.

Standing in front of the building, you can follow the interplay SIKART describes: the slanting red curves cut across the vertical window axes of the facade.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART Lexikon: Ueli Berger · Wikipedia (de): Susi und Ueli Berger · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Bundesgasse 33 (Mobiliar) · Wikimedia Commons: Foto des Werks (Ansicht)