Exhibition opening: Ibrahim Mahama & re-opening Kunsthalle Bar

Public opening on the occasion of the installation in public space by Ibrahim Mahama. At the same time, we celebrate the reopening of the Kunsthalle Bar during the summer of 2025.

Just before we open the doors of Kunsthalle Bern after a year of experimenting with the operational aspects of institutional life, we will wrap ourselves in a literal and theoretical chrysalis. We choose the word chrysalis for its transformative connotations; the definitive moment before an insect metamorphoses. It echoes the transformative journey of an institution that heads towards new directions, having for ten months been in a fermenting process, undergoing a re-configuration of all our operations, from exhibitions and public programs to all administrative aspects of instituting contemporary art. This is a pivotal moment also of physical change, given the building’s facade changes for the first time since 1918 with the addition of a new entry/exit at the back of the institution; the very event that prompted us to this “fermentation” period and gave us space to reflect on the legacy of the Kunsthalle itself.

Kunsthalle Bern is extremely pleased to host the first Swiss solo presentation of the artist Ibrahim Mahama, born in Ghana in 1987. The public project responds to Christo & Jeanne-Claude’s wrapping of the Kunsthalle – the first building they ever wrapped – on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 1968. The proposal interrogates the imprint of the Kunsthalle Bern on national memory, and the impact it has had to the city’s architectural and artistic landscape. It is also a critical comment on the Eurocentric focus of the Kunsthalle highlighting the role of Kunsthalle Bern in shaping the western contemporary art canon.