Renée Levi

As a qualified architect and painter, Renée Levi (*1960 in Turkey, CH) is a commuter between these disciplines. She often works in a site-specific or space-specific manner and uses the means of painting to intervene in existing architectural ensembles. Also against this backdrop, a project that can be seen from far and wide was produced by Renée Levi for Regina-Kägi-Hof in Oerlikon, as a commission for the housing cooperative Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich (ABZ). Regina, die liegende Beth (Regina, the Reclining Beth) is an ornamental facade design that extends all over the outer walls of the power station that belongs to a residential development. Levi declared a universally known digit to be an artistic ornament and used it to create a landmark in the neighbourhood.

According to Renée Levi, the number refers to Regina Kägi-Fuchsmann (1889-1972), after whom this cooperative housing estate was named. In 1932, as director of the children’s aid organisation Proletarische Kinderhilfe and later as secretary general of Swiss Labour Assistance, Kägi launched comprehensive aid programmes for children in need. “Any 2 is coexistence,” says Levi, “the encompassing, the divisible.”