BETWEEN

History of the work

On the square in front of Brünnen school at Billeweg 5 stands a yellow metal frame. The city's register calls it “ZWISCHEN” (In Between) and dates it to 2016; the photographs on Wikimedia Commons date it to 2017. The work is by RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co) from Zurich, listed as the art-in-architecture contribution in the leaflet the city's building department published on the new school.

According to that leaflet, the sculpture is a carrier: soft objects in red, orange, yellow and silver hang from it, called “useme's”. Children and adults who come and go at the school may take them down and use them. Their shapes call to mind things like a bone, a neck pillow, a seat cushion, a swimming armband or a handbag. More of them are kept on four floors inside the building. The project also included an encounter in May 2016: about 140 pupils drew their way to school through the neighbourhood between Gäbelbach, Westside, Brünnen and Bethlehem; the drawings were to be worked into maps hung in the school by autumn 2016.

When it opened in August 2016, the building itself was, according to city architect Thomas Pfluger, the first newly built school in Bern in almost forty years. The 2009 competition had been won by Ernst Gerber Architekten + Planer; after just over two years of construction, twelve classes moved in, from the early-years level to the sixth primary class.

RELAX are Marie-Antoinette Chiarenza (born 1957, from Tunis) and the Bernese Daniel Hauser (born 1959). The pair have worked together since 1983, and since 2000 they have been based in a Zurich studio. The “& co” in the name stands for changing forms of collaboration with other people. The duo became known for statements such as “artists are no flags” (1993); according to Kunstraum Baden, they rarely make self-contained works and mostly work for a specific place. Passing by, you can check whether soft shapes are hanging on the yellow frame right now or whether they are out and about.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Hochbau Stadt Bern: Bauflyer Volksschule Brünnen (2016) · Stadt Bern: Referat Thomas Pfluger, Bauende Volksschule Brünnen, 30. 6. 2016 · IKT: RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co) · Kunstraum Baden: Biografien „einziehen umräumen“ 2024 · Wikimedia Commons: Installation Zwischen (RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co) 2017)