Kunsthalle Bern

About

The Kunsthalle Bern is a Kunsthalle (art exposition hall) on the Helvetiaplatz in Bern, Switzerland. It was built in 1917–1918 by the Kunsthalle Bern Association and opened on October 5, 1918. Since then, it has been the site of numerous exhibitions of contemporary art. Since its opening in 1918, the Kunsthalle Bern has played a significant role in the presentation of modern and contemporary art in Switzerland. From an early stage, it presented exhibitions by both Swiss and international artists associated with avant-garde movements. A notable early event occurred in 1933, when Ernst Ludwig Kirchner held his largest retrospective at the Kunsthalle and acted as curator of his own exhibition, an unusual practice at the time. The Kunsthalle gained international acclaim with solo exhibitions by artists such as On Kawara, Paul Klee, Christo, Alberto Giacometti, Henry Moore, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Gregor Schneider, Eva Aeppli, Bruce Nauman, Lawrence Weiner, Bridget Riley and Daniel Buren, Hans Haacke and has hosted seminal group exhibitions such as Harald Szeemann's Live In Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form (1969). Szeeman's work for the institution was re-visited in recent years...

- Jean-Christophe Ammann / Harald Szeemann, Von Hodler zur Antiform. Geschichte der Kunsthalle Bern, Bern 1970.

- Peter Schneemann, Localizing the Contemporary – The Kunsthalle Bern as a Model, JRP Ringier Editions, 2018