Christian Bernhard
Christian Bernard is Director of Mamco (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Geneva). He conceived and applied the notion of this unusual institution (inaugurated in September 1994). To date, besides the permanent rearrangement of the museum collections’ display, Mamco has organized over four hundred monographic and collective temporary exhibitions, including retrospectives of Siah Armajani (1995 and 2007), Claudio Parmiggiani, Martin Kippenberger, Jim Shaw, Bertrand Lavier, Guy de Cointet, Steven Parrino and John M Armleder.
Christian Bernard was Director of Villa Arson in Nice from 1986 to 1994. This institution of the French Ministry of Culture consists of a National Center of Contemporary Art, an Experimental School of Art and artists' houses. Among the numerous exhibitions presented at the Villa Arson, special mention should be made of Tableaux abstraits (1986), Q.U.I. ( Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, 1987), Le Désenchantement du Monde (1990), No man's time (1991), Le Principe de Réalité (1993), the multi-annual programmes Sous le Soleil (1988-1991), and Is it about Sculpture? (1990-1994), as well as the retrospective exhibitions of Stanley Brouwn, Maurizio Nannucci, Claudio Parmiggiani, Niele Toroni, Michel Verjux, Didier Vermeiren and Franz Erhard WaltherFrom 1982 to 1985, Christian Bernard was Counsellor for Visual Arts at the Regional Board of Directors of Cultural Affairs Rhône-Alpes in Lyon. In this function, he contributed to the creation of the regional contemporary art collection Rhône-Alpes (FRAC). He also initiated major public projects (such as Richard Serra in Bourg-en-Bresse, Jean-Pierre Raynaud at Minguettes, etc.), and helped to establish important infrastructures for contemporary art ( in Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Lyon, Villeurbanne, etc.).
From 1972 to 1982, Christian Bernard taught in Alsace (France) Letters, Human Sciences and Philosophy, while at the same time working in the field of aesthetics and art criticism.
Christian Bernard was born in 1950 in Strasbourg. He has published many articles, prefaces and interviews both in France and Switzerland, as well as in other European countries. He held many conferences and has taken part in many juries, seminars and lectures in Switzerland and in Europe.
