Bern museum takes flight of fancy

A man in flight by Bob Gramsma. Kunstmuseum Bern

One of the best means of travel is the theme of a new exhibition at the fine arts museum in Bern - travelling in the mind.

Entitled “Head Trips”, it takes a collective flight of fancy in the minds of artists, comic strip creators and science fiction writers.

The exhibition makes the point that for the artistic “armchair travellers” there are no limits in space or time. Nor are there any of the inconveniences which physical travel involves, such as the cost, bad weather, pickpockets, traffic jams, carrying luggage and catching diseases.

Joint curator Monika Brunner says that from Homer and his Odyssey to the present day, creators of science fiction, artists and writers have been taking the world on fantastic journeys through the fertile fields of their imagination.

“They travel around the world and beyond, seeing places and colours which are all in the mind,” she told swissinfo.

Golden age of mind trips

Brunner added that using a starting date of 1870, she and her colleague Daniel Baumann set out to cover what might be termed a golden age of mind trips.

Illustrated books by Jules Verne are ranged alongside the works of other authors such as Jonathan Swift, whose Gulliver went on travels familiar to generations of readers throughout the world.

Another more up-to-date section includes fantasy trips through cyberspace and on video, but the core of the exhibition is perhaps a series of pictures by Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), a farm labourer who was confined for most of his life in a psychiatric clinic near Bern.

A self-taught artist, Wölfli wrote a 3,000-page imaginary account of exploring a world beyond the walls of his clinic.

The narrative is lavishly illustrated with coloured drawings of fictitious maps, portraits, palaces, kings, queens, talking plants and so on, and a series of his pictures is included in the exhibition.

“Head Trips” ends its journey on January 5.

swissinfo, Richard Dawson

in brief head trips

A new exhibition in Bern explores travelling in the mind, through the work of artists, comic strip creators and science fiction writers.

It includes illustrated books by Jules Verne and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s travels.

A more up-to-date section includes fantasy trips through cyberspace and on video.

Pictures by Adolf Wölfli, a farm labourer who was spent most of his life in a psychiatric clinic near Bern, form the core of the exhibition.