Institution

Kunsthalle Bern is an institution for contemporary art — a space where experimental ideas, artistic voices, and urgent questions of our time come together.

We aim to inspire, engage, and challenge our visitors through exhibitions, public programmes, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Our focus lies in presenting contemporary art and practices that reflect and reimagine the world we live in — encouraging new ways of seeing, thinking, and understanding.

As a welcoming space, we invite everyone to take part in cultural, social, and political dialogue. Whether through exhibitions, talks, performances, publications, or educational initiatives, Kunsthalle Bern serves as a platform for exchange — a place where art sparks conversation and connection.

Founded in 1918 by Bernese artists, Kunsthalle Bern has long been a catalyst for artistic experiments. For over a century, it has commissioned works and hosted exhibitions that have shaped curatorial practice and marked both the Swiss and international art scene. Today, we remain committed to supporting artists, fostering curatorial innovation, and preserving our rich history for future generations through our archive, which we make available to audiences and researchers.

Kunsthalle Bern is a leading international contemporary art institution, presenting experimental, thought-provoking, groundbreaking exhibitions and informative and accessible public programmes and events. We practice kinship and care by making time and space for artists and cultural workers to speak about their ideas and the world. We engage our visitors by bridging conversations across our city and our communities.

For us art is a prism for better understanding the world and each other. While our program derives from the contemporary and contemplates the various futures of contemporary art, it also considers how art has been created and experienced in the past. The programme is anchored around not only the Western Canon but gives space to migrant and diasporic situated knowledges and their realities, in the hope that we offer visitors wider perspectives on how to think of culture and the world at large.

Learning for us is a porous process and we believe the institution expands beyond its walls, interacting with the environment that it is situated in. We aspire to do that through a collaborative way of working, and we are committed to promote diversity, equity and access for all, by being open to different perspectives, by spatializing and socializing different forms of knowledge, and hosting in ways that everyone feels welcome. Public engagement is intrinsic to our processes. Therefore, we are a space in which respect, generosity and a culture of sharing and conviviality is practiced daily.

For the next six years our focus will be to highlight practices that discuss environmental and social justice, so as to understand the art institution as a place of discussing and thinking of burning topics of contemporaneity. Inspired by the theory of permaculture, which operates as an umbrella for a symbiotic, care-full, holistic trajectory, our multi-year program emphasizes the importance of ecological justice and reparation, and we aim to highlight the critical role of arts and culture to imagine human and non-human relations anew.

Team

iLiana Fokianaki (she/her)
Executive and Artistic Director

Nino Baumgartner (he/him)
Facility Manager

Nya Bürki (they/them)
Production Manager

Céline Matter (she/her)
Public Program, Communications & Community Relations

Claudia Heim (she/her)
Assistant Curator, Editions & Publications

Julia Jost (she/her)
Archive

Ursina Leutenegger (she/her)
Collective Learning

Gisela Stöckli (she/her)
Deputy Director

Hospitality Team
Anaïs Boogman (she/her)
Lea Fuhrer (she/her)
Avo*Anna Marcus (no pronouns)
Alizé Rose-May Monod (they/them)
Christoph Studer (he/him)
Max Zbinden (he/him)

Technical Team
Avo*Anna Marcus (they/them)
Rafael Käsermann (he/him)

Kunsthalle Bern works together with Swiss civil servants and academics participating in the National Qualification Program (BNF).

Board

Lorenza Donati / Benjamin Dodell, Chair
Madeleine Amsler
Markus Gysi, Treasurer
Zainabu Jallo
Franz Krähenbühl, Delegate of BKG
Manuel Krebs
Karen Amanda Moser
Hannah Rocchi
Esther Schönenberger Bloch
Berit Seidel
Sereina Steinemann, Delegate of visarte.bern

"Overnight, Bern has become a city of art," the local newspaper Berner Tagwacht declared on 23.10.1918. The newspaper thus announced the founding of the Kunsthalle Bern, an initiative of the Bernese artists' association (GSMBA and GSBK, now visarte.bern).

Kunsthalle Bern achieved international fame early on with solo exhibitions of important artists such as Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti, Meret Oppenheim, Jasper Johns, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman and Daniel Buren, and with thematic exhibitions such as Harald Szeemann's When Attitudes Become Form – exhibitions that have helped write Western art history and continue to do so.

The Kunsthalle Bern proves to be a dynamic space for contemporary art with every exhibition. The institution cooperates with local institutions such as the HKB (Bern University of the Arts), the Institute of Art History at the University of Bern, the Arthouse Cinemas of the City of Bern, the Sommerakademie Zentrum Paul Klee, etc.

In 2025, an additional door was added to the garden side on the lower floor of the building. This was the first change to the facade since the foundation of Kunsthalle Bern in 1918. You can find more information on this project HERE.

Directors since 1918

Since 2024: iLiana Fokianaki
2022–2024: Kabelo Malatsie
2015–2022: Valérie Knoll
2012–2014: Fabrice Stroun
2005–2012: Philippe Pirotte
1997–2005: Dr. Bernhard Fibicher
1985–1997: Dr. Ulrich Loock
1982–1985: Jean-Hubert Martin
1974–1982: Johannes Gachnang
1970–1974: Dr. Carlo Huber
1961–1969: Dr. Harald Szeemann
1955–1961: Dr. Franz Meyer
1946–1955: Arnold Rüdlinger
1931–1946: Professor Dr. Max Huggler
1918–1930: Dr. Robert Kieser

The Verein Kunsthalle Bern is supported by the Kultur Stadt Bern.

The Kunsthalle Bar Module #5 was created by Lang/Baumann. The bar was built in 2018 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Kunsthalle Bern and is operated during the warm months until the end of 2026 thanks to the permission of the city of Bern.

Module #5 is a walk-in sculpture and spatial extension of the Kunsthalle and refers to elements of the interior design of the original building. The outline with the bevelled corners is reminiscent of the floor plan of the main hall and the black and white patterned tiles create a reference to the former characteristic tiled floor of the entrance hall. The floating platform surrounds the large linden tree, creating an open and at the same time protected space that offers a panoramic view of the Aare and the old town.

Bar operation: taBerna, Stefan Ruprecht & Mike Hersberger.

The Kunsthalle Bar was made possible in 2018 through the generous support of the Culture City of Bern, Swisslos Kultur Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, Blatter AG, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Ernst Göhner Foundation and Vitra Foundation.

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If you would like to receive regular press information about our exhibitions and events, please send an e-mail to press@kunsthallebern.ch or call +41 31 350 00 43.

International press inquiries may be directed toward our International PR consultant Alexia Menikou: am@alexiamenikou.com