In the context of its permanent exhibition, the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern also focuses thematically on the avant-garde journals of the early 20th century. With some 150 exhibits, attention is devoted to the journal as an artistic field of experimentation.
These journals became an important medium in art – from Futurism via Dadaism to Surrealism and beyond.
The artistic ‘avant-garde’ phenomenon evolved in Europe in the 1910s. Between 1910 and 1933, numerous journals were published. They presented a vision of art and society and drew attention to the artists.
Today, these journals with titles such as MERZ, Cabaret Voltaire, Sturm, Kentiku Sekai and Habitat are among the most significant documents of global modernism. Their often extremely innovative design is particularly fascinating: many avant-garde journals used design and typography as an opportunity to make radical ideas and concepts visually accessible.
They picked up expressive typefaces, colours, and forms and worked with exciting combinations of text and images to signal dynamism and the break with tradition. This makes them forerunners of modern visual communication and advertising design, which works with the same principles.
Another innovation was that many avant-garde journals were published multilingually or contained content in different languages. This multilingualism reflects the world of many representatives of modern art who lived in exile or were migrants. Avant-garde-minded artists often had global networks and forged and nurtured alliances across national borders.