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History of the work

South-west of the chapel, as the city calls the funeral hall of the Bremgarten cemetery, a sculpture by Walter Linck from 1957 stands in section C2. It has no title and combines a stone part with a construction in iron; the city's register describes it as a kinetic sculpture, that is, a work that can move. The funeral hall behind it was built from 1951 to 1955.

Linck was born in Bern on 3 February 1903, the son of the painter Ernst Linck. After the trade school in Bern and a metalwork class in Zurich he studied sculpture at the Berlin academy, and later lived for periods in Paris. In Bern he received early commissions for fountain figures, grave sculpture and portraits. In 1943 he destroyed almost all his previous work; according to SIKART he sank the figures in the Aare. He then turned to metal: from 1950 came his first works in wire and sheet iron, and from 1952 abstract movable sculptures of wire and spring steel.

These works brought Linck international attention. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1956 and 1966, was invited to documenta II in Kassel in 1959 and represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial in 1963. For Bern he made the 'Piano rythmique' at the Tiefenau hospital in 1954, a construction with swinging rods. He died on 3 January 1975; SIKART gives Bern as the place of death, the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland Reichenbach near Zollikofen, where he had had a house and studio since 1941.

The sculpture in front of the funeral hall dates from the period when Linck had found his own language in iron and steel. According to SIKART, his constructions are set in motion by slight vibrations or a draught. On a windy day it is worth standing still for a while.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Stadt Bern: Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum (opendata.swiss) · SIKART: Walter Linck · HLS: Walter Linck · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Murtenstrasse 49, 51, 55, 55A (Abdankungshalle) · Stadtgrün Bern: Der Bremgartenfriedhof – Ein Spaziergang mit Geschichten (2023) · Wikimedia Commons: Foto