Counter-Current in the River

History of the work

At the lower, eastern end of Gerechtigkeitsgasse the Stadtbach, the town stream, runs down the middle of the street, and there Martin Beyeler set up an installation in 2005: 'Gegenlauf im Fluss' (Counterflow in the Stream). The city's data place it in front of number 12 and give no material. Wikidata gives 22 October 2005 as its date and concrete and iron as materials; it locates it in the middle of the street between numbers 1 and 14. According to Wikidata it belongs to the City of Bern.

According to Wikidata, the Stadtbach has been channelled into the town since the 13th century. The available sources do not explain what the title means; literally it speaks of a course against the current.

The city government counts the work among a particular Bernese kind of art. In a reply to the city parliament dated 5 September 2007, the municipal executive wrote that it valued the humorous streak found in many interventions in Bern's public space: an understatement that prompts reflection with little material and often out of sight. As examples it named the 'Mach's na' at the Minster, Carlo Lischetti's 'Keine Brunnenfigur' (No Fountain Figure) on Brunngasse and Beyeler's 'Gegenlauf im Fluss'. Such interventions, it said, should remain possible in future.

The place is old. Gerechtigkeitsgasse is 260 metres long and the oldest part of the east-west axis laid out directly after the town was founded in 1191. It was originally about 26 metres wide, 18 metres after the arcades were built, and until the 16th century it served as a market together with Kramgasse. Today it is part of the old town's World Heritage site.

Little is documented about Martin Beyeler himself; Wikidata describes him as a Swiss painter and installation artist. To find the installation, look into the middle of the street at the Nydegg end of the lane, where the water of the Stadtbach flows.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikidata: Gegenlauf im Fluss (Q98925438) · Wikimedia Commons: Kategorie Installation Gegenlauf im Fluss (Martin Beyeler 2005) · Gemeinderat der Stadt Bern, 5. 9. 2007: Postulat „Ist der Berner Witz auf dem Bahnhofplatz nicht doch noch zu retten?“ · Wikipedia (de): Gerechtigkeitsgasse · Wikimedia Commons: Installation Gegenlauf im Fluss (Martin Beyeler 2005)