I (there is no 'the artist', this is a first person perspective) work with site and situation specific installations with critical agency and auto-biographic transparency. I work against tropes which equate the artist to idol, a fixed status, expected to develop a persona to accessorise the work, banking on contemporary cultural capital.

My work is often a meta-commentary on the situation in which we experience my work, the spaces where we view art and see ourselves mirrored back within this pseudo-public but often private scene funded by private social economies. Utilising familiar standards of the established tastes through a minimal aesthetic vernacular, I critique, from within. A paradox when knowing the sound of a mute point, like kisses which never lands. Installations with many-faceted meta moments invites the viewer to engage in a manner which parallels relational aesthetics, post-institutional critique and performativity.

Sculpture opposes being equated to luxury entities, even as they appear acutely pleasing and as material fetish. Instead they attempt to deliver transparency of process and seek to demystify my practice and production of art. Their critical agency acts as a reflection of the ambivalence of ‘ohne titel’ works, which consequently forces the viewer into a mistrust of their own analysis, as it becomes dependent on academic knowledge disseminated by an elite vocabulary. Making art less arrogant doesn’t necessarily make it more banal.

However, I do not take a polemic or moral stand, I allow the complicated desire to be part of the scene which I question, to be exhibited in my exhibitions. I tackle the problematics of the market which tempts oneself into becoming a marketable product in reflections of the artist persona with extravagant personal attributes and avant-garde attitudes - an attractive investment, drawing parallels to luxury consumption and market mannerisms. Sometimes these thoughts are delivered in monologues, by my artist persona. My work, even when not delivering performance, is highly performative. Space itself becomes a protagonist in the work through architectural interventions, texts are not supportive material but essential parts of the work even when mimicking a press release format. Material, methods and mimicry, always highly considered, is part of my developmental discipline.

This dense and highly articulate vernacular of situation specific work is set against my own total lack of academic art merits, leaving school at 15. My auto-didactic, heutagocical approach means I choose continuous development and transformation over a repetitive, recognisable, thus marketable, practice.

‘Sanna Helena Berger creates situations that provoke and intensifies the alternation between scrutinising and coming under scrutiny that signifies our interaction with art. Berger effectively destabilises flows of real social interaction in a series of explorations into how behaviour is conditioned by our surroundings, and how in turn these mechanisms can be deployed for artistic purposes. Berger’s interventions enlarge and skew the familiar into subtly caricatured forms, inviting detachment. Yet, despite their stagedness, these performances and arrangements also bleed out into the space they occupy together with their audience, making participation compulsory.’
- Stian Gabrielsen, Editor, Kunstkritikk

Berger’s work is an aesthetic and intellectual structure driven by auto-didacticism and material pragmatism. Often beginning as a text, her performances variate quotidian experience reformulating power relationships and ideas of value through bodies and objects. While Sanna may not refer to herself as a director, I find it helpful to think about the diversity of her practice as a directorial strategy, particularly in her management and orchestration of collaboration.
Alexandra Symons Sutcliffe, independent curator / writer

Berger’s practice is highly considered and urgent – presenting meaningful ways for audiences to engage with challenging social and personal conditions. Her practice pushes disciplinary boundaries bringing together performance, sound, text and installation. There is a necessity for her practice and artistic voice.
Rachael Davies, curator, Cell Project Space

Sanna Helena Berger
contact

Soon -
April / May *opening 28th April - Concrete Arguments, Shahin Zaribal, Berlin
June - Splinter, Berlin
June - Mocvara Gallery, Zagreb
June - Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb
August - Baerum Konsthall, Baerum
September - Cale Gallery, Tokyo

2023
Represäntation, Waf Galerie, Vienna, February
Minor Variations, Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, March

2022
Der Ganz Normale Luxus der Zunge, Kunsthalle Bremerhaven
XS, Spazio ORR, Brescia, Italy *solo
Ego & Orchestra, Hosêk Contemporary, Berlin *solo
A text about failure, amatter, Cittipunkt, Berlin
Der Ganz Normale Luxus, Neu Workshop, Hamburg
A text about failure, Höjden, Stockholm

2021
Persona Sonata, Lament.tv, Berlin *solo
Im dialog, w. Aline Sophie Rainer, Kunstverein Kärnten, Austria


2020 Parallels, w. Shade Théret, Cell Project Space, London

2019
An ode to labour, 1.1 Basel, Switzerland
Oyster, PiK – Projektraum im Kunstwerk, Cologne
Nome d'us, Shore, Vienna
SALE, PS120, Berlin *solo

2018
A stock-take, Super, Berlin *solo
A smile-strike, w. Vera Karlsson, Index, The Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm
Intermission, Delfi, Malmö
A sale, Brussels Art Weekend, Super, Brussels *solo

2017 (selection)
Vienna, Cordova, Vienna *solo
Vienna,Cordova, Barcelona *solo
Maybe there is a substitute for exhibiting, Minibar, Stockholm
Arbetstitel (offentligt verk), Delfi, Malmö *solo

2016 (selection)
Agency (properties of pseudo-public spaces as a prelude), Sorbus, Helsinki *solo
Agency, Kulturforum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, November
A sequence which corresponds, Union Gallery, London *solo
The edge must be scalloped, Diorama, Oslo *solo
Domestic Manifesto, Modern Museum, Stockholm
The body as function, Shanaynay, Paris

Selected Sound
Soundtrack, live performance with glasses, Waf Galerie, Vienna, 2023
Minor Variations, live performance w. Flute and glasses, Skånes Konstförening, 2023
Orchestra, live performance with glasses, Hosêk Contemporary, Berlin, 2022
Persona Sonata, live performance with glasses, Lament.tv, Berlin, 2021
Persona Sonata, glasses composition with dialogue, Xplusx, Cashmere Radio, Berlin, 2021
- A movement, Album, Cherche Encore, London, 2021
Texte Contact, text, sound piece w Axelle Stiefel, Joyfully Waiting, Switzerland, 2021
Vestige, Sound piece, TLTRPreß, Berlin, 2020
Mahnmal, sound installation, Le Bourgeois / 3236rls, London, 2019
An introduction to modular synthesis, live performance, Spektrum, Berlin, 2017

Selected Published works
Feuilles Volantes by vorstellen.network at Sculpture Garden Biennale, Geneva, 2022
Der ganz normale luxus, Zirka, Hamburg / Yvonne Lambert, Paris, 2022
DEARS magazine, w Axelle Stiefel, Zürich, 2021
Artist Network Theory Supported by Swiss Art Prize, 2020
Eva Hesse Foundation publication, NY, 2018
Domestic Manifesto, Las Injurias, Caracas, Venezuela, 2016, Printed Matter, NY

Artist Residencies by invitation
Sorbus Galleria with solo exhibition, Helsinki, October, 2016
Union Gallery with solo exhibition, London, April/May, 2016
Jupiter Woods with solo exhibition, London, October, 2015
Rupert with solo exhibition, Vilnius, September, 2015

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