PH 14

History of the work

On the western outer wall of the annex that houses the Institute of Hospital Pharmacy at Freiburgstrasse 4–6, coloured glass elements sit in stainless-steel frames. Wikimedia Commons counts fourteen of them. The work is called 'PH 14' and dates from 2012; the sources found do not explain what the title stands for.

Behind the name Lang/Baumann are Sabina Lang, born in Bern on 14 March 1972, and Daniel Baumann, born in San Francisco on 9 February 1967. According to SIKART, Lang attended the foundation course at the Bern School of Design and trained as a display designer, while Baumann trained as an architectural draughtsman and took his school-leaving exam as an adult. From 1990 the two moved in the circles of the Reitschule in Bern; in 1991 the self-taught pair decided to work as a production partnership and have signed their works L/B ever since.

Their awards include the Canton of Bern art prize in 1997, the Swiss Art Award in 1998 and 2002 and the City of Bern art prize in 2006. They first attracted attention around 1995 with large photographs in which they staged themselves in colourful tracksuits. Later came works that can be entered and used, which they call 'Real Work', such as the one-room hotel 'Everland' at Expo.02 in Yverdon, as well as inflatable elements and staircases that lead nowhere.

SIKART describes the dialogue with architecture as one of the pair's main concerns. In Bern further works on buildings can be seen, such as 'Beautiful Wall #25' on the Forsthaus energy centre from 2013. On site you can count the fourteen coloured glass elements one by one on the annex's western wall.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Lang/Baumann · Wikimedia Commons: Installation PH 14 (Lang⁄Baumann 2012)