mnemonic object

Nr. 18: Mural in the Cabane B

500 x 500 cm, acrylic on plaster wall, 2011. Photo: © Martin Wiesli

For six days — around 45 hours — I painted a mural that was allowed to breathe only briefly: a nocturnal gaze outward, houses in flames, Bümpliz burning. No bodies, no damned souls — a hellscape without the moral finger wag.

Inspired by Mexican muralism, which tells stories for everyone — even for those who never open a book — I painted my own song of fire.
When my painting hand suddenly caught fire (metaphorically, then literally), I had to switch to my left. It led me deeper into the themes of ash, destruction, and rebirth.

Fire, to me, is home — both daily threat and beauty.
In California, the forests burn; in Switzerland, we fear the flood.
So fire and water, life and collapse, fused in my largest work.

On March 20, 2011, the mural was painted over in white.
Today, it exists only in memory and a few photographs — a deliberate disappearance, an invitation to embrace the fragility of art and life.