Martha Cerny, curator of the Cerny Inuit Collection
Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch
How has climate change influenced the artwork of people living in the arctic, and what lessons can we learn from Inuit artists?
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Not content to mind her own business, Susan studied journalism in Boston so she’d have the perfect excuse to put herself in other people’s shoes and worlds. When not writing, she presents and produces podcasts and videos.
The Cerny Inuit Collection in Bern is the only museum on the European continent to focus on contemporary circumpolar art.
Curator Martha Cerny, a Canadian and Swiss dual citizen, has been immersed in Inuit art since the early 1990s – when she and her Swiss husband, Peter, bought a collection he’d seen advertised in a local newspaper.
Today, the Cerny Inuit CollectionExternal link is housed in a former mechanic’s garage overlooking Bern’s railway tracks. Thanks to the museum’s huge windows, white walls and concrete floors, it’s easy to imagine the tundra climate zone where much of the artwork came from.
In this podcast, Martha Cerny introduces some of the highlights of the collection, in particular, works that express the challenges posed by climate change.
This gallery shows some of the works that she speaks about, and the video below shows a mobile meant to keep bad spirits away.
Manhole Hunter, by artist Jesse Tungilik
(Photo by Severin Nowacki)
Severin Nowacki
Ceremonial anorak made of walrus intestines and trimmed with feathers
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch
Works on display at the Cerny Inuit Collection, with Inuit sea goddess Sedna, in foreground, during good times
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch
Inuit sea goddess Sedna lamenting the loss of the polar ice, by artist Floyd Kuptana
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch
Open to the public: the library at the Cerny Inuit Collection
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch
Shared Migration, by artist Abraham Anghik Ruben
(Photo by Severin Nowacki)
Severin Nowacki
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Photographer Markus Bühler has been visiting northwestern Greenland for around 15 years and is well accepted among the local Inuit. He shows how they embrace the new while preserving their own traditions. His latest trip, in autumn, focused on the threat of climate change. (Isobel Leybold-Johnson, swissinfo.ch)
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It reveals the high level of artistic creativity of indigenous people from the northern polar region who have had little or no formal art education. The collection was begun 15 years ago when Canadian-born Martha Cerny and her Swiss husband, Peter, bought over 120 undocumented pieces including stone and whalebone sculptures, stone prints and rare…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.