Poetics, research and procedures in the work of André Berger
Sergio Niculitcheff, 2020.I'm always surprised by certain artists who manage to creatively and unusually take advantage of procedures, sometimes said to be sold out, despite the fact that I am in frequent contact with artistic production. I talk here specifically about the work of André Berger, who makes use of intaglio techniques. This artistic practice, since its origins, dates back centuries of use, and even so he shows us that through poetics it is possible to reinvent the language of artistic work.
André Berger presents in his prints formal quality and technical expertise in researching procedures. Aesthetically in the whole of his production, immersion in language presents a flow of apparently unexpected images, which are scattered and disjointed at first, causing us to feel strange, however this is what makes his unique poetics, these images are attractive precisely because of the unusual factor. He works with images possessing a fine irony, they are provocative themes in which he moves fluently in the images and themes discussed. His formal imagery is loaded with unique allegorical elements, arising from reminiscences and associations of memory and landscapes. This fantastical universe that he presents to us is prosaic and at the same time woolgathering.
It is noticeable in the choices of images the use of an allegorical charge which denotes a visual approach referring to the universe and aesthetics of Symbolism. Another striking factor in his poetics is timelessness, a displacement of images to a “non-place”, with no specific reference to the present, past or future. The artist does not misrepresent what he came for, the main subject in itself is the print itself, with an attentive concern with research, technical precision and rigor in the procedures. Based on the possibilities presented, André reinvents narratives in a creative and original way, the self-reference of language within contemporaneity. In this contemplated production, is evident the resource of representation and the delight of pleasure in artistic making.
