Large Piano Rhythmique

History of the work

Next to the main entrance of the former Tiefenau hospital at Tiefenaustrasse 112 stands a painted construction of iron. Walter Linck made it in 1954. The Swiss art lexicon SIKART calls it “Piano rythmique, grand”; the city's register writes “Grosses Piano Rhythmique”. SIKART describes it as a construction with swinging rods and names it, together with the “Grasharfe” (Grass Harp) of 1952/53, as an example of how close Linck's play of movement comes to the rhythm of music.

The sculpture was an exhibit before it came to Bern. According to the records of the Foundation of the Swiss Sculpture Exhibition, which the University of Bern has made available online, it was shown in 1954 at the first Swiss Sculpture Exhibition in Biel. In 1975 it returned for the sixth edition, as part of the retrospective “Hommage à Marcel Joray”. Today it stands on the hospital grounds.

Linck, born in Bern in 1903 as the son of the painter Ernst Linck, trained in Bern and Zurich and then studied sculpture in Berlin. From 1928 he earned his living in Paris with figures and portraits; in Bern he made the returning mercenary with the little bear on the Bärenplatz fountain. In 1943 he destroyed almost all the work he had produced until then. From 1950 he worked with wire and sheet metal, from 1952 with spring steel, and built moving abstract sculptures. In 1959 he took part in documenta II in Kassel. He died in 1975; Wikipedia gives Reichenbach near Zollikofen as the place of death, SIKART gives Bern.

The hospital had been founded in 1913 as the city's second hospital; the service wing by Lindt & Hofmann dates from 1912/13. Operations ended in December 2023. If you stand in front of the sculpture today, watch the individual rods: they are mounted so that they can swing; according to SIKART, such parts of Linck's moving works are set in motion even by currents of air.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Walter Linck · Wikipedia (de): Tiefenauspital · SIKART: Walter Linck (Michael Baumgartner) · HLS: Walter Linck · Universität Bern, Things that Matter (Omeka): Piano rhythmique, grand (1954) von Walter Linck · Universität Bern, Things that Matter (Omeka): Walter Linck, Piano rhythmique (1954), 6. SPA 1975 · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Tiefenaustrasse 112, 112D · Wikimedia Commons: Eisenplastik Piano rythmique, grand (Walter Linck 1954)