Cosmic Sphere Fountain

History of the work

On the grounds of the former Ziegler hospital on Morillonstrasse stands a fountain sculpture in the form of a polyester sphere: the 'Kosmischer Kugelbrunnen' (Cosmic Sphere Fountain) by René Ramp. The City of Bern dates it to 1975. Wikipedia gives 1974 for the spherical fountain sculpture and mentions further examples in Thun, at the City Nord car park, and in Gümligen, at the Moos school. Together with Thomas Moll, Ramp made the film 'Augenlied' in 1976, which builds on these fountains.

Ramp often worked with simple basic forms: square, circle and triangle on the surface, cube, sphere and pyramid in space. According to Wikipedia he saw the sphere as a continuation of his concern with space and time, which had already shaped his early series 'Peinture Chimique' and 'Raumvisionen' (1966 to 1973). In the 1970s he began a phase of art on buildings that lasted more than twenty years. It also includes the walk-in 'Brunnenplastik Marabut', which has stood in the Tscharnergut estate since 1984.

René Ramp was born in Bern on 31 January 1941 and died in Köniz on 30 July 2004. He trained as an architectural draughtsman and from 1964 worked freelance as a painter, sculptor and environmental designer. SIKART lists kinetic art, drawing and ceramics as well as art on buildings among his fields.

The fountain stands in surroundings that have changed a great deal. The Ziegler hospital went back to the bequest of the merchant Georg Emanuel Ludwig Ziegler and opened in 1868 in the Bellevue country house. A ward tower and a staff building were added in 1976, shortly after the sphere was made. The hospital closed at the end of August 2015; from 2016 the building was used temporarily as a federal asylum centre. Behind the sphere you can see the hospital's former main building.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): René Ramp · SIKART: René Ramp · Wikipedia (de): Zieglerspital · Wikimedia Commons: Zieglerspital-Kugelbrunnen (René Ramp 1975)