Armchair, Bed, Carpet

History of the work

In the courtyard of Uni Engehalde at Neubrückstrasse 10 stand two pieces of furniture cast in concrete: an armchair and a bed. Both rest on floor slabs of porphyry. The city's register lists the ensemble as “Sessel, Bett, Teppich” (Armchair, Bed, Carpet) and dates it to 1996. The Swiss art lexicon SIKART includes the same work, untitled, in its list of works, dated 1995–96 and described as concrete elements on porphyry.

The courtyard belongs to a group of buildings that housed the veterinary hospital until 1966. The veterinary school had moved onto the site as early as the early 19th century; it only became part of the university in 1900. The present older buildings were designed by the architect Otto Lutstorf in 1891/92, among them the main building at Neubrückstrasse 10, an exposed-brick building with a stair tower that the city's heritage office classes as worthy of protection. After the animal hospital moved to the Bremgartenwald, the firm of Sylvia and Kurt Schenk renovated the site between 1992 and 1996 and added new buildings. Grunder's work dates from the same years.

Mariann Grunder was born in Bern in 1926 and died in her home city in 2016. She first qualified as a primary school teacher, began an apprenticeship as a sculptor with Werner Dubi in Gümligen in 1954 and moved into her own studio in Rubigen in 1958. She completed her training in Paris with László Szabó in 1960. According to SIKART, from 1969 she developed elements that could be combined and cast in concrete, for relief walls as well as free-standing sculptures. In Bern she also made the urn wall in the Schosshalde cemetery (1975–78) from concrete elements; in 1986 the Kunstmuseum Bern showed a survey of her work.

On site, look down: the armchair and the bed do not stand on the ordinary courtyard paving but on their own slabs of porphyry, a natural stone. A third object called “carpet” is not described separately in the records of the work.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Mariann Grunder · SIKART: Mariann Grunder (Marie Therese Bätschmann) · Universität Bern: Uni Engehalde (altes Tierspital) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Neubrückstrasse 10 · Wikimedia Commons: Betonplastiken Sessel und Bett auf Porphyr-Platten (Mariann Grunder 1996)