The Cerny Inuit Collection in Bern is the only museum on the European continent to focus on contemporary circumpolar art.
Curator Martha Cerny, a Canadian and Swiss dual citizen, has been immersed in Inuit art since the early 1990s – when she and her Swiss husband, Peter, bought a collection he’d seen advertised in a local newspaper.
Today, the Cerny Inuit Collectionexternal link is housed in a former mechanic’s garage overlooking Bern’s railway tracks. Thanks to the museum’s huge windows, white walls and concrete floors, it’s easy to imagine the tundra climate zone where much of the artwork came from.
In this podcast, Martha Cerny introduces some of the highlights of the collection, in particular, works that express the challenges posed by climate change.
This gallery shows some of the works that she speaks about, and the video below shows a mobile meant to keep bad spirits away.
Manhole Hunter, by artist Jesse Tungilik
(Photo by Severin Nowacki)
Ceremonial anorak made of walrus intestines and trimmed with feathers
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Works on display at the Cerny Inuit Collection, with Inuit sea goddess Sedna, in foreground, during good times
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Inuit sea goddess Sedna lamenting the loss of the polar ice, by artist Floyd Kuptana
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Open to the public: the library at the Cerny Inuit Collection
(Photo by Susan Misicka/swissinfo.ch)
Shared Migration, by artist Abraham Anghik Ruben
(Photo by Severin Nowacki)
art at Cerny Inuit Collection