Heart Loop

History of the work

In the forecourt of Bümpliz Castle at Bümplizstrasse 97, a flat figure is laid into the ground with paving stones: a loop in the shape of a heart. The City of Bern lists the work as 'Herz-Schlaufe' (Heart Loop) by Reto Leibundgut and dates it to 2005. Wikimedia Commons documents it as a stone installation.

The reason lies in the building next door. The artists' lexicon SIKART lists the work among Leibundgut's works at the civil registry office in the New Castle of Bümpliz. According to an art walk through Bümpliz based on city material, weddings have been held there since 2005; the heart shape is meant to recall this use as a wedding venue.

According to the same source the New Castle was built in 1742, and the Bernese Albrecht Stürler is thought to have designed its garden. In 1879 the garden was remodelled and given a neo-Baroque pool. The city's building inventory groups the Old and New Castles and their gardens as one ensemble, bounded to the north-west by Bümplizstrasse and the open Stadtbach stream. It notes that a development of the castle estate proposed by Karl Indermühle before 1910 was only partly carried out.

Leibundgut was born in Büren zum Hof in 1966. According to SIKART he trained as a window dresser at the Loeb department store in Thun and began making sculpture in 1993; from 1995 to 1997 he attended the art class of Václav Požárek in Bern. He often works with cheap or used materials and with intarsia, that is, inlay work. In 2004 he received the promotion prize of the City of Bern's art commission, and in 2005 a Canton of Bern grant for its studio in New York.

Because the work lies flat in the paving, its shape is best seen from a few steps away. The path to the wedding venue leads straight across it.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Reto Leibundgut (Marc Munter) · Geocaching GCARD01: Kunstspaziergang Bümpliz (Kurzfassung eines Kunstspaziergangs der Stadt Bern) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Schloss Bümpliz · Wikimedia Commons: Steininstallation Herz-Schlaufe (Reto Leibundgut 2005)