Ça Commence le Matin 1971

Ça Commence le Matin

In 1963, as part of the competition for artwork for the new vocational baccalaureate school, the Kunstkredit chose the freestanding sculpture ça commence le matin (1971) by Bénédict Remund. Roughly 240 cm high and cast in bronze, the finely articulated artwork is placed on a green near the main entrance. Connected by a crosspiece, three rods of different lengths rise vertically from a rectangular base. Out of this framework emerges a figure that almost seems to float – a construct balancing between the abstract and the representational. The association is left open: Is it a body or head, wings or limbs? 

Bénédict Remund

Sculptor Bénédict Remund (*1904 Basel–1993 Théméricourt/FR) lived in Paris from 1930 until returning to Basel in 1939 after the outbreak of WW II. Through the Kunstkredit and Baudepartement Basel-Stadt [cantonal urban planning authorities] he received commissions for public buildings, fountains, and school grounds as well as mosaic artworks for walls and floors. His pared-down constructs are inspired by animal and human forms. He was a member and participant in exhibitions of the anti-fascist artist association Gruppe 33. After the war Remund returned to Paris, eventually settling in Théméricourt, where he continued to execute commissions for his native city. As of the mid-1960s when failing health no longer permitted sculptural work, painting increasingly gained importance for him as a medium.

Title: Ça Commence le Matin [It Begins in the Morning]
Date made: 1971
Artist: Bénédict Remund (1904 – 1993)
Materials: Figure: light patinated bronze, base: concrete
Dimensions: Figure: 240 × 60 × 200 cm / Base: approx. 250 × 150 × 40 cm
Location: Fachmaturitätsschule / Engelgasse / Basel
Mode of acquisition: Competition of the staatliche Kunstkreditkommission Basel-Stadt (1963)
Collection: Bau- und Verkehrsdepartement