Earth ("Bluemehuus", flower house)

History of the work

At the entrance of the 'Bluemehuus' pavilion at the Bethlehemacker school, a two-part mural is painted onto the brick. The City of Bern records it as 'Erde' (Earth) by Walter Linck and dates it to 1953. The Bernese German house name translates as flower house; the neighbouring pavilions likewise carry names that match their element.

According to the city's building department, the entrances of the school wings at Kornweg 101 to 107 show the four elements, earth, air, water and fire, each in abstracted form. Walter Linck and Margrit Linck-Daepp were responsible for these furnishings. The ceramicist had married Linck in 1927; according to SIKART the two shared a studio in Zurich from 1926 and moved to Paris together in 1928.

The city's building inventory describes the school as a complex of five similar pavilions that Oskar and Claire Rufer built in three stages between 1952 and 1959. The classroom pavilions have two main floors with two rooms each, reached by a staircase at the gable end and a long corridor. The inventory stresses that the complex looks unified despite the stages.

Walter Linck was born in Bern in 1903 and died in 1975. His early works were figures and portraits; according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland he destroyed his work of that time in 1943 and turned to metal. From 1952, SIKART says, he made abstract moving sculptures of wire and spring steel, shortly before this mural. In 1956 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

During the complete renovation of the school, the city says, the element pictures were restored true to the original, as was a playful fountain in the playground. On site it is worth looking at both parts of this picture, which together form one work.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Hochbau Stadt Bern: Kunst und Bau Volksschule Bethlehemacker (2024) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Schulhaus Bethlehemacker · SIKART: Walter Linck (Michael Baumgartner) · HLS: Walter Linck · Wikipedia (de): Walter Linck