Fleur du ciel (Flower of the Sky)

History of the work

In the western part of the courtyard of the Steigerhubel school complex stands a finely structured iron sculpture: “Fleur du ciel”, roughly “sky flower”, by Walter Linck. The building inventory dates it to 1954, the city’s register to 1954–1961; Wikimedia Commons lists it as “Fleur du ciel, grande”. Wikidata gives the sculpture a height of 4 metres.

The school complex was built in stages from 1952 to 1959 to designs by Hans and Gret Reinhard. As was usual at the time, the architects spread the functions over separate buildings: a three-storey secondary school, four primary school buildings, gymnasiums, a parish hall and a kindergarten made of three hexagonal rooms. The primary schools stand like pavilions in a park with mature trees. The federal inventory of Swiss heritage sites (ISOS) lists the complex as being of national importance.

Linck (1903–1975) was from Bern. He studied at the trade school in Bern and in the metalwork class of the school of applied arts in Zurich, attended the Berlin academy from 1922 to 1926 and moved to Paris in 1928. At first he worked as a sculptor of figures and portraits. In 1943 he destroyed almost all of his work to date and from then on worked only in metal. From 1952 he built abstract, movable sculptures of wire and spring steel; in 1959 he took part in documenta II in Kassel.

Another work from the same period is his “Piano rythmique, grand” of 1954 at the Tiefenau hospital, a construction with swinging rods. According to SIKART many of Linck’s wire sculptures respond to slight vibrations or draughts of air. On a windy day it is worth watching the “Fleur du ciel” for a while. The reference works disagree about where Linck died: the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland names Reichenbach near Zollikofen, where he had his studio, SIKART names Bern.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Walter Linck · HLS: Michael Baumgartner, Linck, Walter · SIKART: Michael Baumgartner, Walter Linck · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Steigerhubelstrasse 49–65 (Schulhaus Steigerhubel) · Wikidata: Fleur du ciel, grande (Q64852757) · Wikimedia Commons: Eisenplastik Fleur du ciel, grande (Walter Linck 1954)