The 4th Place (also: Thorberg Project / 1:1 thinking and usable sculpture)

History of the work

On the park terrace of the University of Bern at the Grosse Schanze, north of the Haller monument, stands a massive body of concrete. Heinz Brand made it in 2003. The city's register lists the work as “Der 4. Ort” (The Fourth Place) and also under the names “Projekt Thorberg” and “1:1 Denk- und Nutzskulptur” (1:1 thinking and use sculpture). According to a 2016 report by the Swiss broadcaster SRF, the sculpture reproduces a cell of Thorberg prison.

Heinz Brand was born on 8 March 1944 in Biberist. He attended the school of applied arts in Bern from 1960 to 1965, took the photography class in Zurich in 1968 and studied at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 1976 to 1978. The Swiss art lexicon SIKART names his engagement with Zen Buddhism, which goes back to stays in Kyoto in 1966 and 1984, as the basis of his work, together with a series of “thinking surfaces” and “thinking sculptures” since the 1970s. Brand lives in Reichenbach near Zollikofen.

The title also appeared in a museum that same year: in 2003 the Kunstmuseum Luzern showed an exhibition of Brand's work called “Der 4. Ort”, a cross-section of his work since the 1970s. For it he extended the installation “Torloses Tor” (Gateless Gate) so that it extended out of the galleries as far as the pond outside the Culture and Congress Centre. Other works by him in Bern are “Schachloses Schach” (1986) in granite and marble in front of the Federal Archives and “Visuelle Relativität” (1973) at the Institute of Exact Sciences, also on the Grosse Schanze.

The sculpture is sprayed with graffiti again and again. SRF reported in 2016 that many passers-by do not recognise the painted wall as an artwork at all and that cleaning teams of the city's civil engineering office regularly clean the works on the Grosse Schanze. The photos on Wikimedia Commons expressly note that the graffiti is not part of the work.

The site itself has a long history: the municipality laid out a park on the Schanze in 1890/91, and the monument to Albrecht von Haller by Hugo Siegwart has stood there since 1908. Between 1957 and 1967 the slope was cut back for the railway and replaced by new terraces. Standing in front of the concrete block today, you have the bronze Haller statue in view just a few steps away.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SRF, 4. 5. 2016: Eine App aus Bern will Kunst im öffentlichen Raum retten · SIKART: Heinz Brand (Susanne Bieri) · Wikipedia (de): Heinz Brand (Künstler) · Kunstmuseum Luzern: Heinz Brand – Der 4. Ort · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Grosse Schanze · Wikimedia Commons: Betonplastik Der 4. Ort (Heinz Brand 2003)