Ainas, Egyptian deity of healing

History of the work

On the north-western outer wall of the dental clinics at Freiburgstrasse 7, a bronze figure is mounted above the main entrance, slightly off-centre. Gustave Piguet made it in 1954, the year the building was completed. The City of Bern lists it as 'Ainas, Egyptian deity of healing'. The city heritage office's building inventory writes 'Anais' in its description of the building, but in its list of artworks calls the same bronze 'St George'. The sources found do not settle which name is correct.

The building was put up in 1953/54 for the Canton of Bern to plans by the architects' partnership of Otto Brechbühl and B. Marti. Two strictly cubic blocks stand on an L-shaped plan. According to the building inventory, the north facade of the four-storey wing on Freiburgstrasse is deliberately asymmetrical: two thirds are articulated by long ribbon windows, while the third above the entrance is a closed surface of exposed concrete, and this is where the figure sits. In 1963 the firm Itten + Brechbühl added a storey to the north wing, and between 1992 and 1996 an extension was built on the courtyard side. The inventory rates the complex as one of the best buildings of the 1950s in Bern; the foyer by the side entrance contains a fresco by Victor Surbek from 1957.

According to the Swiss artists' lexicon SIKART, Piguet was born in Interlaken on 19 February 1909 and died on 12 December 1976. Wikidata gives Hinterkappelen as the place of death, while the art database Askart gives Bern. SIKART describes him as a sculptor who worked mainly on art for buildings and public spaces. According to Askart he trained in Bern as a wood and stone sculptor, then went to Paris, where he took part in the 1937 World Exhibition, and returned to Bern when war broke out in 1939. After that he received many public commissions; according to Askart, works by him can be found in the town hall and the Kunsthalle, among other places.

At the entrance it is worth looking up: the figure is the only element on the otherwise unarticulated concrete surface that the architects left closed above the door.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Freiburgstrasse 7 (Zahnmedizinische Kliniken) · SIKART: Gustave Piguet · Wikidata: Gustave Piguet (Q37912965) · Askart: Gustave Piguet, Biografie · Wikimedia Commons: Bronzeplastik Ainas, ägyptische Gottheit der Heilkunde (Gustave Piguet 1954)