Statement

In her objects, photos and installations, Stine Berger investigates the world as an ecological system, i.e. a connected system in which all parts influence each other.
In parts, her work is directly related to ecology in the meaning environmentally friendly: the use of organic materials and works that point directly to environmental questions, such as ‘Heal the World’ (2009) or ‘The Melting Antarctic’ (1997).
Some works, such as ‘From Another Place’ (2008) and ‘Destination’ (2009), allude to the concept of an ‘elsewhere’ which can be exotic, imaginary and far away, but also very real, such as Northern Greenland and the Seychelles in the photograph ‘Collision’ (2003). That the equatorial islands are threatened with disappearance through the melting Arctic just makes this image even more pertinent.
The dialectic between place and people is found both within the works and in the relationship between work and spectator. In the installation ‘Reality Show’ (2009), the visitor is at the same time spectator and participant. Apart from the possibility of seeing in it a commentary on the voyeuristic-exhibitionistic aspects of both reality shows and art openings, the work creates a system – a manipulation of the place and the visitors’ relation to and perception of it.
Romanticist art incorporated the spectator into an idealised definition of nature, which was an elsewhere and radically separated from here. All concepts are per se artificial, so also that of nature. A contemporary concept of nature is to see it as an ecological system. This concept is closely linked to the idea of the fragile and endangered nature, and, moreover, one that is necessary in order to react to the environmental problems. It seems that the works of Stine Berger want to draw the spectator into and convince her of this mental image of a globalised network of spaces. This she does by showing the fiction of the separated elsewhere, and also by creating places that invite the spectator to react and thus change the fragile system of that place.
Her works attempt a change in the spectator’s perception and interpretation of the relations between spaces and people. Such a change is probably more the job of art than any attempt at direct interventions or didactic instructions for action.

Eva May, 2009