Untitled

History of the work

On the lawn in front of the crematorium of the Bremgarten cemetery lies a long blue roller; at the other end of the field, by a group of pines, stands a blue concrete wall. Both parts belong to an untitled work that Christoph Haerle made in 1996 and 1997 for the communal grave in field C8; the city's register gives a blue concrete wall and a pipe as materials. According to the City of Bern's brochure on the cemetery, the two objects frame the communal grave and are meant as counterparts.

Urns are buried in the lawn between them. On the third side a stacked wall of larch boards closes off the field, with urn vaults and places of remembrance in front of it. According to the brochure, the artist wanted the plain blue shapes to convey calm and confidence. The pines at the edge screen the field from the neighbouring commercial zone; because a large bakery and a coffee roastery operate there, the air here smells of coffee, cocoa or fresh bread, depending on the wind.

Haerle was born in Zurich on 7 April 1958. According to Wikipedia he trained as a stone sculptor from 1978 to 1980 and then studied architecture at ETH Zurich until 1987. He ran his own architecture practice and taught at several universities, including landscape architecture in Rapperswil. His sculptures are made of steel, concrete, wood, cast resin and Plexiglas; he sometimes colours the concrete. In 2007 he received the 'Goldener Hase' award from Hochparterre and SRF for the Max-Bill-Platz in Zurich.

The crematorium in front of which the roller lies was built in 1907/08 for the Bernese cremation cooperative and extended several times; the building inventory classifies it as worthy of protection. Visiting the site, you can look from the blue pipe across the lawn to the blue wall and so see both poles of the work at once.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Stadt Bern: Broschüre Bremgartenfriedhof (2023) · Wikipedia (de): Christoph Haerle · Wikimedia Commons: Installation Gemeinschaftsgrab Bremgartenfriedhof (Christoph Haerle 1997) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Weyermannsstrasse 1, Krematorium · Wikipedia (de): Bremgartenfriedhof