IM FULL OF BYARS

James Lee Byars (1932–1997) is one of the most unusual and colourful characters of the 20th century art world. Moving between America, Japan and Europe, the artist (born in 1932 in Detroit) – and not least thanks to his friendship with Harald Szeemann – had a very special relationship to Bern: it was a place where he could withdraw, and where fantastic performances and exhibitions in private and public spaces took place. ‘Im full of Byars’ provides an insight into and an overview of the work of the artist who sought perfection in his performances, installations and sculptures, who equated the ephemeral and the immaterial with the material and the permanent and whose works have lost none of their enigmatic nature or poetry today.