Trans-lating (Über-setzen)

History of the work

In the new north-western part of Bümpliz cemetery, an arch of forged and laser-cut steel leads across the water from the square to the urn niches. A figure with an outstretched hand walks along it. The brochure published by Stadtgrün Bern, the city's parks department, reads the bridge arch as an image of the passage from life to death; in favourable light, it says, the arch is mirrored in the water and so becomes a closed form.

The sculpture came to the cemetery through an exhibition. Because sculptures are rare on the graves in Bümpliz, Stadtgrün Bern and the working group 'überdenkmal' of the Swiss association of master sculptors and stonemasons brought around 30 works on the theme of life and death into the grounds in 2013. The show was called 'Übersetzen'. According to the city, Fornaro's contribution fitted the existing architecture so well that it stayed.

The setting itself is younger than the cemetery. From 1987 to 1994 the core, more than a hundred years old, was extended to plans by the architects Ueli Schweizer and Walter Hunziker and the landscape architect Franz Vogel, working with the sculptor Schang Hutter. Three urn walls, grave fields and a watercourse were created; according to Commons the water feature is about 180 metres long, and it ends in a pond under lime trees. On the urn walls Hutter's reliefs and cast-iron Janus heads can be seen, and some panels carry poems by Peter Bichsel and Friedrich Hölderlin.

Roland Fornaro was born in Riehen on 11 November 1958 and works as an art blacksmith and iron sculptor; the brochure calls him an artist and smith from Eriswil. Standing by the pond on a bright day, you can check whether the arch closes into a circle in the water.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Stadt Bern, Broschüre Friedhof Bümpliz (2018) · Wikipedia (de): Friedhof Bümpliz · Wikidata: Stahlinstallation ÜBER-SETZEN · Wikidata: Zierbrunnen-Anlage Friedhof Bümpliz · Wikimedia Commons: Zierbrunnen-Anlage Friedhof Bümpliz · Wikimedia Commons: Roland Fornaro