Hôtel de Ville
Søren Berner
With Hôtel De Ville, Søren Berner examines the igloo tent as an ambivalent sign — between shelter and exclusion, freedom and constraint. In Paris, it serves as a forced living space for migrants and unhoused people, while elsewhere it stands for outdoor adventure and voluntary uncertainty.
Developed for the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography, Berner transforms this fragile, temporary object into a more permanent sculptural form and situates it within the urban context of Biel. What is usually mobile and provisional appears fixed.
Silkscreen prints extend the installation: photographs of tents in the city are combined with travel slogans such as “Feel Free to Come Alive.” The language of adventure stands in contrast to the reality of existential need. In this form of over-identification, ideological tensions are made visible.
Hôtel De Ville brings together sculpture, image, and performative elements in a work that raises fundamental questions: Who is allowed to be vulnerable? Who is made vulnerable? Who has the right to occupy public space — and who is merely tolerated within it?
Supported by: Statens Kunstfond
Proposed by: Espace Libre
Curators: Laurine Landry & Janosch Perler
Year of production: 2026
espace libre
espace libre
Seevorstadt 73
2502 Biel/Bienne
