aaruf-aarab (or "on the arbitrariness of the predetermined")

History of the work

On the lawn beside the path between the flamingo enclosure and the entrance to the Dählhölzli zoo lie three identical, elongated concrete bodies with a curved, barrel-like shape, staggered in a row. Hannes Vogel made the work in 1988; its full title is “aaruf-aarab (oder über die Beliebigkeit des Vorbestimmten)” (or on the arbitrariness of the predetermined). The city’s register gives two locations: the outdoor area in front of the vivarium and an indoor spot by the coffee machine.

1988 was also the year in which the zoo opened its rebuilt vivarium, the animal house with species mainly from the tropics and subtropics. The flamingo enclosure in front of the vivarium was added in 1999. The zoo itself had opened on 5 June 1937, funded by private donations and bequests. The sources available do not explain what the title means.

Vogel (1938–2023) came from Chur. He trained as a graphic designer, attended the school of applied arts in Zurich and in 1959 art schools in Paris. After years as a graphic designer in Basel, he worked from 1966 as an independent artist in Village-Neuf, just across the French border from Basel. From the early 1970s he made works for buildings and public spaces, from 1989 together with his wife, the designer Petruschka Vogel. According to SIKART the list of his site-specific works comprises almost fifty pieces.

Alongside this, Vogel engaged critically with television and video from 1977 to 1989. Recurring themes were the Schams valley in Graubünden, the game of chess and the writer James Joyce. In Bern, in 1993, he placed a quotation from Joyce on the façade of the library for the exact sciences. From 2004 he lived permanently in Mathon, and in 2014 he and Petruschka Vogel received the Graubünden culture prize. Visitors to the zoo will find the second part of the work indoors.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Beat Stutzer, Hannes Vogel · Wikipedia (de): Tierpark Dählhölzli · Wikidata: aaruf - aarab (Q72482335) · Wikimedia Commons: Betoninstallation aaruf - aarab (Hannes Vogel 1988)