Large Moiré Object

History of the work

At the front of the Einstein terrace, part of the Grosse Schanze, stands a sculpture of spray-galvanised steel. The City of Bern lists it as 'Grosses Moiré-Objekt' (Large Moiré Object) from 1973; the image description on Wikimedia Commons calls it 'Grosses Moiré-Objekt N'. Moiré is the shimmering pattern that appears when two transparent grids overlap and the viewing angle or the grid moves.

Werner Witschi (1906–1999) was born in Urtenen and first worked as a teacher: from 1930 to 1963 he taught at the secondary school in Bolligen, then until 1971 he taught drawing at the teacher-training college of the Neue Mädchenschule in Bern. He trained as a painter, among other places at André Lhote's academy in Paris in 1928/29. According to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, his non-figurative iron work from the 1950s onwards matters more than his early paintings; his large sculpture 'Rütlischwur' for the 1964 national exhibition in Lausanne became popular.

From 1966 Witschi worked with pendulums that create moiré effects through perforated sheets set one behind the other or rotating grids. According to Wikipedia, from 1973 – the year of this sculpture – he also made fixed moiré objects in which the grids are tilted or curved. With these, the movement only happens in the eye as one walks past.

The terrace lies above the university's Institute of Exact Sciences. In 2020 the cantonal parliament of Bern argued over a bar on the Einstein terrace; the canton, the largest owner on the Grosse Schanze, pointed to sensitive space research equipment in the building below and to the terrace's limited load-bearing capacity. The Schanze itself was part of the 17th-century city fortifications and was largely levelled between 1834 and 1846.

The object works best if you walk slowly along it and look through the grids at the sky or the city behind.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Werner Witschi · HLS: Witschi, Werner (Jochen Hesse) · swissinfo.ch: Berner Künstler Werner Witschi 93-jährig gestorben · Wikimedia Commons: Stahlplastik Grosses Moiré-Objekt N (Werner Witschi 1973) · Grosser Rat des Kantons Bern: Pop-up-Bar auf der Einsteinterrasse (2020) · Wikipedia (de): Schanzen (Bern)