2023-11-01 19:21:21
– Bern’s most notorious light pollution
With “Rendez-vous Bundesplatz” the limits of artistic freedom are severely strained – at least from an aesthetic point of view. A polemic.
Published: November 1, 2023, 8:21 p.m
The Hawaiian shirt motif of a Mallorca tourist? No, just a scene from the light show on Bundesplatz.
Photo: Susanne Keller
Fans of over-subsidized major events in public spaces are having happy days: until the end of November, the Federal Palace will once again be treated to confusing photographs. While in previous years popular children’s topics such as 500 years of the Reformation were dealt with, mystical paths are now being taken.
The Federal Palace as a fairytale land: What sounds like an excerpt from a mass-full manifesto is actually much worse. The parliament building becomes an artistic projection surface that has the aesthetic appeal of a Rolf Knie picture above a white leather sofa.
Looking away is also recommended from a health perspective. The light show is the best guarantee for the worst dizzy spells since the Windows 95 screen saver was launched.
Attention, risk of confusion: Windows 95 screen saver (left) and light show on Bundesplatz.
Image editing: mer
What is offered is initially limited to images of a sparse forest for a hopelessly long time. This is what it must feel like to be invited to a slide show evening by a couple you know casually, where you are presented with all the trees you saw from your last trip to Scandinavia. The Bundesplatz has never felt so hopeless.
Then things start to move. All kinds of animals sneak through the picture. They look like they were trying to copy Disney characters, but the 180,000 francs that the city of Bern pumped into the show wasn’t enough to secure the corresponding rights.
Even honey should be denied to him: Unhappy bear on the facade of the Federal Palace.
Photo: Susanne Keller
In order to protect themselves legally, all life was removed from the animals. All the animal inhabitants of the forest share a pitiful appearance, as if they had been held at the Rhine knee for several years for medical experiments.
It’s another example that animal art doesn’t work in public spaces in the city of Bern. We remember: in 2017, the “Bernartiners” invaded Bern’s streets – sculptural monsters that looked as if Andy Warhol had acquired his artistic skills in the department of a dog food company.
Birth of the popular question “Is this art, or can it go away?”: Bernartiner in downtown Bern.
Photo: Valérie Chételat
Back to the Federal Palace facade. Meanwhile, people were also spotted. But even with them the artistic implementation is extremely confusing.
The figures are so crudely designed that one initially suspects unscrupulous product placement. Because suddenly the Aromat figurehead Knorrli appears in the branches. But false alarm. When you zoom in closer, the figure turns out to be Little Red Riding Hood.
All human facial features appear to be heavily inspired by Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort.
Photo: Susanne Keller
Like the animals, people also seem rather unhappy about being projected onto the Federal Palace. The facial expressions are as dead as the facial expressions of minor characters in the dreary Soviet children’s books. Especially for young viewers, this concentration of human desolation serves as a solid basis for building up all kinds of fears of commitment, which 20 years later have to be treated away at great expense.
The performance ends after 30 minutes. It feels like a collective fever dream of a moderately talented graphics class.
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