Circular Dance
XKarlin Studios
Artists
Curators
Opening
Duration
Venue
Prvního pluku 20/2, Prague 8
Wed–Sun 1pm–6pm
After twelve years as an employee, Céline Berger decided to change her focus and to devote herself to artistic work. The personal direction of this artist is more of a counter-direction to that taken by large companies. The latter are more often interconnecting work with play, and designing the working environment as a playground for their employees. The artist – who employs hyperbole and subtle irony – explores where personal, public, working, and leisure time meet.
Céline Berger’s art is interwoven with corporate strategies and thinking, and it is a reflection of the artist’s past employment history. After twelve years as an employee, Céline Berger decided to change her focus and to devote herself to artistic work. This reflection of the artist’s past experience forms an important connecting link between her videos, photographs, short films, and objects. The personal direction of this artist is more of a counter-direction to that taken by large companies. The latter are more often interconnecting work with play, and designing the working environment as a playground for their employees.This leads to an increased intermingling of the private and the public, of leisure time with working time. Céline Berger has used this interconnection in a number of different projects, a selection of which is being presented not only at Karlin Studios but also at a nearby store that sells luxury office furniture – the Vitra Showroom.
The installation at Karlin Studios includes the video loop La Ronde, in which a professional actress recounts the stories of several characters. The piece could be profiled as something of a series of fairy tales from the world of top management. Their “heroes” and “heroines” face everyday challenges. In their positions, however, their personal challenges are inseparable from their work-relatedones. Conversely, the video installation entitled Ritornell is literally a visual comparison of “liquidity”. In its own special way it parodies the unpredictability of a client as an abstract problem faced by the sales department, which includes very physical labour with liquid materials.
Berger refrains from being directly critical, acting more as an observer who purposefully chooses distorted areas of corporate culture and mirrors them in the world of contemporary art, which, however, also contains tendencies to accept certain aspects of corporate functioning.
Artist Talk: 4 October at 6 pm – Vitra Showroom (Křižíkova 148/34, Prague 8)
