Kunsthalle Bern is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Edgar Calel.

Edgar Calel (*1987) belongs to the indigenous Maya-Kaqchikel community in Guatemala. He was born in Chi Xot or San Juan Comalapa, where he lives and works. Calel studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Guatemala City. Calel does not understand his multimedia practice as art in the Western sense, but rather as Naoj—an expression of collective knowledge, spiritual experience, and cultural memory of the Kaqchikel. He gained international recognition through contributions to the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), the Carnegie International (2022), and biennials in Liverpool, Gwangju, and São Paulo (2023). Works by Calel can be found in the collections of the Tate Modern, the Museo Reina Sofía, and the National Gallery of Canada, among others. The Sculpture Center in New York presented a solo exhibition of Edgar Calel's work in 2023, and in 2025 he was part of a group exhibition at the Tate Modern in London.

Kunsthalle Bern is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Lin May Saeed.

Lin May Saeed (1973–2023) was a German-Iraqi artist and animal rights activist. The question of coexistence between humans and animals also found its way into Saeed's artistic practice. She worked primarily with sculptures, often made from simple materials such as Styrofoam, and developed a visual language that intertwined mythological, religious, and activist narratives. Her works and writings proposed a compassionate reconception of the relationships between species and depicted liberation and reconciliation as sculptural and social acts.

In 2023, the artist passed away shortly before the opening of her solo exhibition The Snow Falls Slowly in Paradise at the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin. Posthumously, her work was presented in solo exhibitions at GAMeC (Bergamo, 2024), Sapieha Palace in Vilnius (2025), and Buitenplaats Kasteel Wijlre (2025). Her work was also on view at Manifesta 15 (Barcelona, 2024), Biennale Gherdëina 9 (Ortisei, 2024), and the 9th Berlin Biennale (Berlin, 2016). Her group exhibitions include presentations at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (2021), and Museo Castello di Rivoli (2018). Her works are included in major collections, including the Centre Pompidou Paris, the National Museum of Art in Oslo, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Westfälisches Landesmuseum, and the Collection of Contemporary Art of the Federal Republic of Germany.