The Kunsthalle Bern has reopened after a year-long transformation led by director iLiana Fokianaki, marked by a new entrance designed by ALIAS architects and a trio of exhibitions by Black artists. The reopening follows a symbolic intervention by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, who wrapped the building in jute sacks referencing the colonial history of Swiss cocoa extraction in Ghana, echoing Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1968 wrapping of the same building. The inaugural shows feature solo exhibitions by Melvin Edwards, Tuli Mekondjo, and Tschabalala Self, with Edwards's retrospective traveling from the Fridericianum in Kassel to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
This transformation matters because it signals a deliberate shift away from the Kunsthalle's historically Eurocentric and white programming, addressing Switzerland's colonial past and its contemporary relevance. Fokianaki's leadership, including improved staff pay and audience engagement, positions the institution as part of a broader reckoning in Swiss museums, as seen in the National Museum Zurich's exhibition on colonial history. The conscious pairing of artists from the African diaspora and the engagement with ethnographic collections highlight a new curatorial direction that reframes Swiss art history through a global, postcolonial lens.