Word Treasure

History of the work

In the inner courtyard of the Breitfeld school, by the south-eastern wing on the Weingartstrasse side, letters have been paved into the ground. The city describes the work as letter paving made of paving stones in the outdoor area of the school; Reto Leibundgut carried it out in 2011 and lists it under this title among his art-for-buildings projects. A photo on Commons notes that the furniture on the square is not part of the work.

The school itself was built in 1911/12 to plans by the Bern architects Joss & Klauser. The city's building inventory describes an angular building in the spirit of the Swiss heritage-protection movement and names its main feature as the interplay of architecture and art: architectural sculpture by Hermann Hubacher and Cless at the portals and frescoes by Emile Cardinaux inside. From 2005 to 2010 the complex was renewed for Stadtbauten Bern by the Solothurn architects Graf Stampfli Jenni, restoring the original colours inside. The paving was added the year after this work was completed.

Leibundgut was born in Büren zum Hof on 14 July 1966. According to SIKART he trained as a window dresser at the Loeb department store in Thun from 1983 to 1987, began working as a sculptor in 1993 and attended Václav Požárek's art class in Bern from 1995 to 1997. In 1999 he received the Swiss Art Award, and in 2004 the promotion prize of Bern's municipal art commission. The lexicon describes how he uses simple and second-hand materials and refers to traditional crafts such as marquetry.

In Bern he also made 'Herzschlaufe' (Heart Loop) at the civil registry office in the Neues Schloss Bümpliz (2005) and 'Star', a square laid out with river pebbles at the Weissenheim (2010). In 2013 he created a 56-metre path of river pebbles with an inlaid inscription on the bank of the river Wiese in Basel. Anyone entering the courtyard in Breitfeld should look at the ground.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Standstrasse 61 · SIKART: Reto Leibundgut · Reto Leibundgut: Kunst am Bau (Werkliste) · Kanton Basel-Stadt, Kunstkredit press release 2013 · Wikidata: Wort-Schatz · Wikimedia Commons: Steininstallation Wort-Schatz