The vineyards and cherries on one side, the metropolitan architecture by Herzog & deMeuron on the other. It is a biodiversity rich in peculiarities that can be seen walking along the border between Germany (Weil am Rhein) and Switzerland (Riehen), where, at the entrance to the Beyeler Foundation, a colorful yellow and light green sculpture is positioned.
It is a sort of bell of which, with a little strength, you can push the pendulum until it tolls and from there you are ready, legs on your shoulders, to start the walk that connects the two countries, following, on foot, or by bike, motorbike or whatever you want, the 24 sculpture-objects that the German artist Tobias Rehberger (1966) designed and created.
Basel. The Via Rehberger: an artist’s itinerary to cross the border
It is a path, the “Rehberger-Weg” (simply translated “via, Rehrberger path”), which is in fact an artistic project of public art, open to all, without the need to pay tickets and enjoyable forever, following the “24 Stops” designed by the artist. They are more or less large and always colorful objects as it is in the style of Rehberger, also famous for the iridescent bar that he redesigned inside the gardens of the Venice Biennale for its 53rd edition. Also in that case, for the cafeteria, Rehberger worked, as now, on a “public” place, using different methods and stylistic means, from painting to design. As for the bar in Venice also for the Rehberger-Weg, the work is not only aesthetic, but also functional, with an open invitation to people to interact.
The choice to entrust the cross-border path to Rehberger is also given by the fact that the artist has created many works for public spaces in Germany, from Münster to Berlin.
The “path” which, with a walk of about five kilometers, connects two countries, two neighboring municipalities and two cultural institutions (the Fondation Beyeler and the Vitra Campus) was created with the support of Swatch, through a work of synergy that involved also all the inhabitants of the two municipalities. Some of them, for example, have opened the garages of their homes to the artist and the staff of the Rehberger-Weg to help create the “24 stops”, the 24 indicators created to mark the road and show it to hikers, tourists, to passers-by who intend to take the promenade from Basel to Germany, or vice versa.
Walking the Rehberger-Weg means walking for about half an hour, or three quarters of an hour, depending on the pace, without hearing noises and sounds, apart from some hissing and rustling. It happens to meet other travelers, walkers, curious and passionate tourists but nothing compared to the oceanic masses that have crossed the jetties of Christo (another recent example of public art), but above all you can see the nature, the landscape, the places.
At the highest point of the route, Rehberger has created panoramic binoculars as a “waymarker”: approaching the eyes you can recognize the many new tall buildings of Basel and you can also see the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein where, in the same way as the Foundation Beyeler is positioned, as one of the 24 stops, a green and yellow bell.
Whether you are starting from Germany or starting your journey from Switzerland, once you arrive at the famous Campus Vitra you shouldn’t miss the new sober and monolithic building, inaugurated in June 2016. It is the “Schaudepot” exhibition depot, designed by the Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron to permanently preserve and display 430 prominent pieces from the design collection of the Vitra Design Museum, one of the most important in the world with about 7,000 pieces of furniture, over 1,000 lamps, and thousands of documents and legacies of designers named Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton and Alexander Girard.
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