ONLY TRANSMITTERS CAN BE LOCATED

History of the work

The work titled 'NUR SENDER KANN MAN ORTEN' (Only Transmitters Can Be Located) consists of three parts: a metal sign, two resonating bodies facing each other, and an electronic display. On Wikimedia Commons it is documented under the name 'Schild und Wechselschrift' (Sign and Changing Text). It belongs to the Museum of Communication at Helvetiastrasse 16 and is dated 1998.

The museum began in 1907 as the company museum of the Swiss Post. Since 1990 it has had its own building, which Andrea Roost built for the PTT between 1986 and 1989; it was meant to become part of a larger cultural centre in the lower Kirchenfeld district, which was only partly realised. The building is a reinforced-concrete frame clad with limestone panels. In 1997 the museum became independent as a foundation of Swiss Post and Swisscom and received its present name, one year before Fricker's work was made. In 2019 the Council of Europe awarded it its Museum Prize.

Hans Ruedi Fricker (1947–2023) was from Zurich and lived in Trogen in Appenzell. Instead of studying art, he trained as a care worker in children's homes. SIKART describes him as a concept and context artist who worked with mail art and art in public space. In the late 1970s he marked routes through St. Gallen with photocopies of his self-portrait; in 1981 he founded an 'office for artistic goings-on in the countryside' in Trogen and became active in the worldwide mail art scene, which communicated by post and stamps. From the 1990s he named places with enamel signs and phrases such as 'Place of Cunning' or 'Place of Irony'.

On site, step between the two resonating bodies and watch the electronic display, whose text, as the Commons name suggests, changes.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikimedia Commons: Installation Schild und Wechselschrift (H.R. Fricker 1998) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Helvetiastrasse 16 · Wikipedia (de): Museum für Kommunikation Bern · Wikipedia (de): H. R. Fricker · SIKART: Hans Ruedi Fricker