Kunsthalle Bern is proud to present the first comprehensive solo exhibition in Switzerland of US artist Melvin Edwards (*1937). The exhibition is part of a retrospective, organised in collaboration with Fridericianum in Kassel and Palais de Tokyo in Paris, each institution presenting a different interpretation.

Born in Houston, Texas, Edwards began his artistic career in the early 1960s, at the height of the American civil rights movement. Since then, he has been recognized as a formative voice in contemporary African-American art and sculpture.

Edwards’ overall practice deals with the history of race, labor and violence – concepts that are interconnected and in dialogue with important historical moments: slavery and segregation in the US, the civil rights movement, Pan-Africanism, and the continuous dialogue between the cultural African diaspora, Afro-American artists, and artists of the African continent. These themes are addressed through works such as his much-celebrated wall piece series Lynch Fragments – or sculptures such as Homage to Oba Ewuare II of Benin City, Nigeria (2017), both presented here.

Welding is Edwards’ central creative medium: his sculptures are powerful studies in abstraction. The works range from installations made of barbed wire to complex assemblages of steel and iron – all reminiscent of agricultural and industrial materials – and the way these materials and structures haunt our present and future, steering us towards finding parallels between labor and life in the Plantationocene. In addition to his sculptures, the exhibition showcases lesser-known works on paper that use the technique of relief, revealing shapes of chains, barbed wire, and other elements.

The exhibition attempts to offer glimpses into the cultural universe within which Edwards flourished and by which he was influenced. From his Swiss art professor Hans Burkhardt, to his Zambian friend, the artist Henry Tayali; from his encounter with Jayne Cortez – a prominent poet and voice of the activist cultural movement of the 1960s who later became his wife – to his neighbor and friend Ana Mendieta. Mendieta organized an important trip to Cuba, where Edwards interacted with Cuban intellectuals and artists and shared experiences with peers like the artist Martha Rosler. The music of John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Ornette Coleman, as well as the writings of Édouard Glissant and other thinkers, were also part of the cultural orbit that shaped Edwards.

The exhibition of Melvin Edwards is generously supported by the Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim-Stiftung and the Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung