iLiana Fokianaki Rejects Neutrality

Opening in October 1918, when most of Switzerland’s neighbours were devastated by war, Kunsthalle Bern is a contemporary art institution founded by artists. It is perhaps best known for its radicalism during the 1960s, when its iconoclastic director, Harald Szeemann, organized exhibitions of outsider art and gave Christo and Jeanne-Claude their first major commission to wrap a building in fabric. Kunsthalle Bern has had ten directors since Szeemann’s resignation in 1969, and the institution has struggled to preserve its former director’s legacy without appearing to be trapped in his shadow. Its latest director, Greek curator iLiana Fokianaki, was appointed in November 2023, and has presided over the 2025 relaunch of the Kunsthalle, with solo exhibitions by Melvin Edwards, Tuli Mekondjo and Tschabalala Self marking its reopening. Here, she discusses her future plans for the institution.

Juliet Jacques How did you become director of Kunsthalle Bern?

iLiana Fokianaki Prior to this, I was founding director of State of Concept Athens, which opened in 2013 during the Greek financial crisis. While I enjoyed the role, I didn’t feel that it was right for a single person to hold the directorship forever, and, on a personal level, I wanted to be challenged by different conditions and audiences. Care and its ethics and politics in art institutions are my core interests as a curator. When I joined Kunsthalle Bern I started thinking about environmental care more specifically. Switzerland presents itself as a spearhead for environmental technological development – but it is also a major extractor. When I arrived here, the Swiss art world was starting to grapple with its colonial entanglements. Researchers such as Bernard Schär have explored the involvement of the Swiss Confederation, and some of the country’s prominent families, with colonialism. That re-evaluation, and colonialism’s link to environmental catastrophe, seemed an interesting focus for the institution’s programme. 

In joining the Kunsthalle I also wanted to address a ghost that hangs over the building …

JJ Harald Szeemann?

iF Yes – he’s the epitome of the white, straight, male genius that has defined a lot of culture-making in the west. It wasn’t honest, or even possible, not to talk about him: his name always comes up whenever Kunsthalle Bern is mentioned. His legacy has incredible aspects – helping to create the western avant-garde – but there were also major gaps – for instance the lack of women and non-western artists in his programming.

JJ Did that inform your decision to re-open with Ibrahim Mahama wrapping the building in jute sacks, in a response to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapping of the building in 1968?

iF My primary interest has always been in local audiences and the stories that mean something to them, before considering how these narratives play out on a more global level. For local audiences the wrapping of the Kunsthalle by Christo and Jeanne-Claude is an iconic moment that still resonates with them. In our collaboration with Ibrahim Mahama, we wanted to address Switzerland’s mercantile relationship with Ghana via the cocoa trade. Swiss chocolate is part of Switzerland’s national identity, but it’s not Swiss – it’s Ghanaian and Ivorian. And cocoa was transported to Switzerland in jute sacks. Ibrahim’s installation brings home the extractive and destructive side of the Swiss chocolate industry – its relationship to colonialism and environmental disaster. 

JJ How do the other opening exhibitions build on this?

iF The Kunsthalle is often seen as a place for artists under 40, so, for some, it’s a surprise to see us presenting the work of Melvin Edwards – who is 90. I wanted to challenge that ageism in contemporary art – whilst highlighting the historic gaps in our programme, as Edwards was already very established by 1969 yet never had an exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern. Edwards’s work discusses the legacies of plantations and slavery, alongside labour conditions and racism, in a way that’s relevant beyond his US context. He belongs to a generation who engaged actively with Pan-Africanism, seeking a connection to the continent. I wanted to link Edwards’s practice with that of my peers, like Tschabalala Self, who is also looking at her lineage and connection to the African continent alongside contemporary forms of community gathering and politicisation.

Tuli Mekondjo’s solo show also echoes the aftermaths of colonisation, be it through forced labour or religion– a process of stripping populations of their identities by ‘civilising’ them through violent methods disguised as care. In her native Namibia, where Germany perpetrated a genocide, Mekondjo is looking for traces of her ancestral cultural heritage, often found in western ethnographic collections. She is also trying to recover the cultural practices of her ancestors, erased by missionaries: hair-braiding, specific ways of dress and bead making. For her exhibition with us, she has replicated some of these techniques in a diorama that references how these markers of Namibian culture have been historically displayed in western museums. The diorama flips that Eurocentric gaze on itself.

Neutrality does not exist in art institutions – simply because they are composed of humans

JJ You’ve taken over from South African curator Kabelo Malatsie, who was the first Black woman to direct an art institution in Switzerland – but resigned after only two years in the role. Why did she leave, and what does it mean for you – as a European woman – to take the role?

iF I can’t speak for Kabelo Malatsie, but I think it is my responsibility to consider what might have led to such a decision and how structural racism in western countries – and institutions – might have been a factor. I am a Southern European woman – a grandchild both of refugees from Asia minor and of a small nomad minority, the Vlachs – and this informs my practice. Having said that, I am very aware of the privileges of my white skin and my EU passport. When I arrived in Switzerland, I proudly identified myself as a migrant: when my work permit ends, I have to leave the country like everyone else. Curators are often thought of as being privileged because we are invited into a country. This is something I want to challenge: how is an art institution involved in perpetuating institutional and bureaucratic violence, and can it act outside of these prescribed rules? 

JJ Let’s talk about the forthcoming Kunsthalle Bern Code of Conduct.

iF It’s a 30-page document that we’ve written over nine months, involving everyone in the institution. We looked at fair pay, background checks on vendors and how we might reduce our carbon footprint. I think it is crucial for institutions to commit to ambitious goals. We are also reconsidering the sources of our funding. Nan Goldin’s role in the campaign against the Sacklers forced  institutions to question where their funding comes from. I look up to her. There are a lot of questions today for institutions and who funds them, for instance those who profit from warfare in Ukraine or Palestine. Our Code of Conduct, is a first step towards addressing some of these issues, and will be published by the end of this year.

JJ Kunsthalle Bern doesn’t have a permanent collection, so it doesn’t have any work that was looted or sold under duress during the Nazi period. Many other Swiss institutions devote significant space in their programming to addressing this past. Does Kunsthalle Bern’s unique set-up free you to look at any other political issues around the institution?

iF Like many European institutions, we have a charged past, and this is something we should discuss openly. One of the first things I learned when I arrived was that the Kunsthalle hosted a show of Italian fascist art during the Second World War, with a catalogue hailing Mussolini. We also had an incredible queer director during the 1930s, who had to be closeted. We are working towards an archive of oral histories highlighting such moments. To discuss complicity and mistakes of the past helps us be aware of our present. The genocide in Palestine has raised questions about whether western values are applied ad hoc, and this feels particularly pertinent here in Switzerland, home of the Geneva Convention. We need to ask ourselves: what does an art institution represent today, and what are its values and responsibilities?

JJ So, you’re deconstructing the myth of Swiss ‘neutrality’?

iF Neutrality does not exist in art institutions – simply because they are composed of humans. Neutrality is a tool that has, at various times throughout history, sadly been used to silence people. 

Kunsthalle Bern’s summer programme, with exhibitions by Tuli Mekondjo, Melvin Edwards and Tschabalala Self, is on view until 17 August  

^{Main image: Ibrahim Mahama, wrapping of Kunsthalle Bern, installation view, 2025. Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern}