Szeemann’s legacy

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Szeemann as a student, portrayed by one of the greatest masters of Swiss photography, Kurt Blum, Bern, 1956. (Kurt Blum/Fotostiftung Schweiz) Keystone

A visitor tries to figure out one of the artworks displayed in When attitudes become form. The reaction of the local citizenry to the exhibition was not exactly warm, forcing Szeemann's ousting from the Kunsthalle right after the show ended. Keystone

Still, some of the visitors were more amused, Bern, March 20, 1969. Keystone

Szeemann's exhibitions blurred the limits not just between 'art' and popular culture, but also between arts and other fields of knowledge and crafts. The public reacted with a mix of shock, puzzlement and fun. Nowadays, this approach is mainstream. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_L18-0151-0001-0007 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Michael Heizer's work Bern Depression, part of WABF, destroyed the pavement in front of the Kunsthalle. This did not help to endear Szeemann to the locals. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_L18-0151-0002-0001 / CC BY-SA 4.0

In the night of March 25, 1969, a dung heap was piled up on the steps leading to the Kunsthalle building. The intervention by a group of young Bernese was a gift to the When Attitudes Become Form exhibition. A poster explained the context of this piece of art called 'Mistificatio' ('Mist' being the German word for dung) or "Dung Memorial", and of its creation: "This dung is real, so-called dung memorial, material: sterquilinium vulgare, four-dimensional approach: smelling art. A piece or art is total only if it is total". Keystone

Art can also be playful. Walter de Maria, WABF, 1969. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_L18-0151-0001-0002 / CC BY-SA 4.0

On December 7, 1968, the Bernese artists Herbert Distel, Markus Raetz and Jean-Frédéric Schnyder - faithful collaborators of Szeemann's - challenged the people of Bern to decorate themselves with explanatory labels at the Christmas exhibition in the Kunsthalle Bern, transforming every visitor in an artwork. (Joe Widmer/Photopress-Archive) Keystone

Installation, as displayed at the exhibition Harald Szeemann: Museum of Obsessions at the Kunsthalle Bern, until September 2, 2018 Gunnar Meier

Harald Szeemann: Museum of Obsessions is curated by the Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles) and the Kunsthalle Bern. In the picture: a mural with the posters of every Szeemann exhibition. Gunnar Meier

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During Harald Szeemann's time as director of the Kunsthalle Bern (1961-69), the city became a magnet for radical artists, thinkers and bohemians. 

This period reached its peak, and its end, with the milestone exhibition, When attitudes become form (WABF), in 1969. The show was the first grand display of conceptual art. Szeemann’s work also broke with tradition concerning how exhibitions were staged (until then with the artist, or group of artists as the centre of attention) and gave rise to the importance of the curator: someone who devises an exhibition following a concept, a theme, or programme. The artists, and also non-artists are then slotted in.