Kunstmuseum Bern

Marisa Merz (1926–2019) was one of the leading figures of the post-war Italian art scene, and closely associated with the Arte Povera movement, the only woman to be so. The subtle power of her work reveals itself in an inwardly nourished vision. Her creations are characterised by silence, poetry, and the quest for the fragility of art, which parallels that of life.  

In her studio, she transformed space and time into a collage using drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations. Marisa Merz moved in a virtuoso manner between European art history and everyday life. She used materials such as  aluminium, clay, copper, nylon, wax, and fabric. Kunstmuseum Bern is dedicating the largest retrospective in Switzerland in thirty years to her work. 

Idea and curatorial concept: Sébastien Delot, Andrea Viliani

Curator: Livia Wermuth

The exhibition is a cooperation with the LaM - Lille Métropole, musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut and the Fondazione Merz.

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On the occasion of the exhibition Kirchner × Kirchner  (12.9.2025–11.1.2026) Kunstmuseum Bern is showing Swiss art from across three centuries in an extensive display from its collection. 

In his expressionist mountain landscapes from Davos, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was continuing a tradition in art spanning the so-called “Schweizer Kleinmeister” to Ferdinand Hodler. However, the depiction of the Alpine world is not the only connection between Kirchner and the art produced in his adopted country. The exhibition opens up an expansive panorama of Swiss artists and motifs that can be related to his work. It encompasses symbolist figure paintings from Arnold Böcklin to Ferdinand Hodler, genre scenes from Albert Anker to Max Buri as well as landscapes from Franz Niklaus König to Martha Stettler. The display is being complemented by permanent loans from the Stiftung Expressionismus at Kunstmuseum Bern, from whose holdings eleven outstanding paintings were added to the collection in 2024.

With works by Cuno Amiet, Albert Anker, Ernest Biéler, Arnold Böcklin, Max Buri, Giovanni Giacometti, Ferdinand Hodler, Franz Niklaus König, Albert de Meuron, Albert Müller, Gabriele Münter, Max Pechstein, Hermann Scherer, Annie Stebler-Hopf, Victor Surbek, Martha Stettler, Marianne von Werefkin, Caspar Wolf and many more.

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In 1933 the Kunsthalle Bern held the biggest retrospective of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in his lifetime. The German artist, now considered one of the most outstanding protagonists of classical modern art, curated the show in close collaboration with Max Huggler (1903–1994), the then head of the Kunsthalle and later director of the Kunstmuseum Bern. 

With Kirchner × Kirchner the Kunstmuseum Bern is looking back at that significant event, while presenting Kirchner as the curator of his own work for the first time. Central to the exhibition is the way in which Kirchner interpreted his artistic development, generously revising it by reworking his paintings or writing texts about Heimelf, and the connections that he established between his works. The exhibition includes some 70 works made in the period between 1908 and 1933, from renowned European and American museums and private collections. The selection of exhibits, in combination with the historical background, makes this ambitious exhibition project a unique and multi-layered experience.

Curator: Nadine Franci

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