O.K.

History of the work

On the Neubrückstrasse side of the university's Centre for Sport and Sport Science at Bremgartenstrasse 145 stands “O.K.”, a sculpture of Corten steel from 1976. Willy Weber deformed the steel plates with explosives. A few metres away stands his chrome-plated sculpture “see” from 1972. The Swiss art lexicon SIKART and Wikipedia list both works as publicly owned pieces at the university sports hall Neufeld. A photo on Wikimedia Commons shows the park at the Studerstein in the background.

Weber worked with explosives from 1962. According to SIKART he first shaped plates of brass or iron, from 1968 polished chrome steel and from 1972 also Corten steel. The lexicon sees the sensual play of forms returning to the fore in the Corten sculptures, while the force needed to deform the metal remains palpable.

Willy Weber was born in Bern on 16 June 1933 and grew up in Muri. He did a commercial apprenticeship, lived for a year in Algeria and then taught himself to paint. In 1965 he wrote a manifesto on his work; according to Wikipedia he called in it for an art that conveys the dynamic element of the explosion. He exhibited in New York in 1969 and represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial in 1969 and the Venice Biennale in 1972.

In the year “O.K.” was made, in August 1976, he took part with Bernhard Luginbühl and Jean Tinguely in the action “Zorn” (Anger) against anti-cultural tendencies on Bern's Allmend. In the 1980s things grew quieter around him; he died in Boll-Sinneringen on 11 May 1998. On site it is worth comparing the two neighbours in two kinds of steel: chrome-plated for “see”, Corten for “O.K.”.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Willy Weber (Regina Bühlmann) · Wikipedia (de): Willy Weber (Künstler) · Wikimedia Commons: Cortenstahlplastik o.k. (Willy Weber 1976)