Shrine

History of the work

Beneath the Monbijou bridge, on the lawn next to the Marzili open-air pool, stands a large concrete body with two wings that swing open like the doors of a cupboard. Walter Kretz cast the “Schrein” in concrete in 1979. His list of works on Wikipedia gives a height of 390 centimetres; Wikidata gives 300 centimetres in height and 400 centimetres in both length and width. The graffiti often seen on its surface is not part of the work.

The occasion was the hundredth anniversary of the Kunstmuseum Bern. Under the title “Werkplatz Marzilibad” five sculptors worked in the pool grounds in 1979: besides Kretz, Ernst Jordi, Jimmy Schneider, Urs Sutter and Walter Vögeli. For the shrine Kretz received grants from the city, the canton and the federal government. According to the description on Wikimedia Commons, the sculpture first stood inside the Marzili pool and was later moved about 200 metres south, under the bridge.

Kretz was born in Steckborn in 1942. From 1975 to 2008 he taught at the schools of design in Bern and Biel, and from 1999 also at the Bern University of the Arts. He had worked with concrete in the open air before: in 1974 he cast seven columns in the Schwellenmätteli below the Kunsthalle Bern, which now stand in the Schadau park in Thun. His “Flügel” (Wing) of 1983 in Wittigkofen has become a landmark of the neighbourhood; children call it the “elephant’s ear”.

How the shrine was built was examined by Sybi Seidel in 2001 in a diploma thesis in conservation and restoration at the Bern University of the Arts. The Marzili pool itself had been redesigned in 1969/70; the city’s building inventory counts it among the most important open-air pools in the canton. On site, look between the open wings and up at the underside of the Monbijou bridge, which runs directly above the sculpture.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Walter Kretz · SIKART: Walter Kretz · Wikimedia Commons: Betonplastik Schrein (Walter Kretz 1979) · Wikidata: Schrein (Q63344467) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Marzilistrasse 29 (Marzilibad)