An Exhibition by students of the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern

The archive of Kunsthalle Bern has been consistently maintained from its inception in 1918 until today. It preserves texts and image material created in conjunction with exhibitions organized over a period of close to 100 years, and thus resembles a treasure trove with traces of art-historical events that have taken place in the Kunsthalle—events whose dynamics have been repeatedly advanced by the venue itself.

In view of the anniversary in 2018, the archive will now be made accessible step by step. 19 students of the University of Bern have performed groundbreaking work in this respect and in the frame of a practice-oriented seminar conducted by Dr.  Kerstin Skrobanek they will present excerpts of the archive.

An event has been selected that drew enormous attention to the Kunsthalle that went far beyond Bern and Switzerland. The show Science-Fiction, presented to the public by the then-director Harald Szeemann from July 8 through September 17, 1967, not only attracted the impressive number of 17,088 visitors to the Kunsthalle and triggered a controversial debate in the press. As an experiment in an institution dedicated to the showcasing of contemporary art, Szeemann ventured to compile the unbelievable amount of around 3,000 objects from sociology, technology, science, art, comics, journalism, and literature. The exhibits were presented in the show ordered in segments: modern spaceflight, art, film, literature, robots, UFOs, humor, toys, comics, as well as science fiction in the real world. Conceived as a tour, the exhibition then traveled to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

Selected archive material will now be shown for the first time, visualizing the exhibition’s context of origin. For example, light is shed on the relationship between Szeemann and his main lender, the science fiction collector Pierre Versins, as well as on the press and audience response. The strong reactions at the time raise questions pertaining to science fiction that are still relevant today: To what extent did Szeemann use this theme to address hopes and fears existing in Western societies? How did the artists deal with science fiction?

Kunsthalle Bern would like to thank the Confederation and the city of Berne for their generous support. Special thanks goes to the University of Berne and to Maison d’Ailleures, Yverdon-les-Bains.