Tell

History of the work

On the forecourt at Viktoriastrasse 21 stands a red-painted iron sculpture: “Tell” by Bernhard Luginbühl, made in 1966. According to Wikidata it is 4.2 metres high, 5.3 metres long and 3.5 metres wide.

Switzerland presented itself with this sculpture at the 1967 world’s fair in Montreal. Afterwards it came to Bern, to the headquarters of the PTT (the Swiss postal, telegraph and telephone service), as SIKART records in its list of works. It stands on the square in front of the main entrance, which is reached by an outdoor staircase and framed by low buildings and two wings of the administrative high-rise.

The PTT headquarters’ administrative centre was built from 1965 to 1970 to designs by the Zurich architects Theo Hotz and Max P. Kollbrunner. Four wings extend from a shared core towards the four points of the compass, so that the plan resembles a Greek cross. The building inventory describes the complex as an early work by Hotz of significance in its own right. From 2016 to 2018 it was thoroughly rebuilt and given new uses.

Luginbühl (1929–2011) grew up as a butcher’s son in Bern’s Lorraine district, trained as a stone sculptor and from 1953 worked almost exclusively in iron. In the 1960s, according to SIKART, he welded together a whole series of giant figures, among them “Elefant”, “Giraffe”, “Silver Ghost”, “Tell” and “Zyklop”. He had a long friendship with Jean Tinguely, and from 1976 he made a name for himself with large burning events, the first on the Allmend in Bern. Climb the outdoor staircase and you can also see the sculpture from above.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Bernhard Luginbühl · HLS: Matthias Frehner, Luginbühl, Bernhard · SIKART: Tobia Bezzola, Bernhard Luginbühl · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Viktoriastrasse 21 (ehem. Verwaltungszentrum PTT) · Wikidata: Tell (Q66348315) · Wikimedia Commons: Tell (Bernhard Luginbühl 1966)