Spring stone fountain

History of the work

North of the house at Steigerhubelstrasse 71 lies a fountain by the sculptor Pi Ledergerber from 1988. According to the City of Bern's register it is made of three kinds of stone: spring stone (Quellstein), "Rouge de Collouge" and slabs of Ticino gneiss. Wikimedia Commons shows it as the fountain at the Domicil Steigerhubel. The available sources say nothing about the commission or the occasion.

Pius Laurentius Ledergerber, known as Pi, was born in Stans on 26 July 1951. After training as a sculptor in Lucerne he obtained the Swiss school-leaving certificate in 1975 through adult education and then studied physics and philosophy at the University of Bern. He has worked as a freelance artist since 1979 and has exhibited since 1982. The fountain thus belongs to his first decade as an independent sculptor. According to Wikipedia he now lives in Burgdorf and in Hohenfels in Germany.

Ledergerber works mainly in stone, and also in wood. Wikipedia describes his sculptures as cubes or columns that often look like stacked slabs but are made from a single block: he cuts and knocks material away, layer by layer. Some blocks he splits into parts, works them and puts them back together without glue; they hold through their weight and the way they interlock. The traces of the tools remain visible. SIKART names installation and art in public space as his other fields.

His exhibitions include the Kunsthalle Winterthur (1993), the Bern Biennale at the Kunsthaus Langenthal (1994), the Kunsthalle Burgdorf (1996) and the Grauholz sculpture trail (1998). At the Steigerhubel fountain, look at the three stones side by side and search for the working marks typical of his sculpture.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Pi Ledergerber · SIKART: Pi Ledergerber · Wikimedia Commons: Brunnen Domicil Steigerhubel (Pi Ledergerber 1988)