Sébastien Berthier

Itch Magazine

Sebastien — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:17:42 +0000

You can find the manuscript of my performance Otakar Švec: An Artist Talk published in the 10th edition of Itch Magazine “In)equality: (Im)possible?”

http://www.itch.co.za/?article=679

Otakar Švec: Artist Talk

Sebastien — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:56:31 +0000

This scripted public lecture allowed the socialist realist sculptor Otakar Švec to present his work in front of a contemporary audience. Prague-based artist, he created several monuments and sculptures which were exhibited at representative exhibitions around the world. However, Švec is also the artist who was commissioned to realize the largest Stalin representation of all times. Erected just before the death of the “Father of the People”, the statue was blown to smithereens as part of the destalinization of the former USSR. Švec talks about this special moment in history when the artist played such a prominent part in the political sphere and questions the complete inexistence of socialist realist art in the current art system.

Manuscript of the Artist Talk

Iaspis Open Studios

Sebastien — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:36:26 +0000

Welcome to the Open Studios at Iaspis.

Performance Friday the 24th at 15.15.

Wondercool Copenhagen

Sebastien — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:21:28 +0000

What a surprise to discover within Dagens Nyheter an add for the city of Copenhagen with a picture of our work Untied (Flag) !

NEU / NOW Festival

Sebastien — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:41:17 +0000

In November, my film Occidental Totems will be part of the NEU/NOW Festival in Tallin.

IASPIS Residency

Sebastien — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:38:14 +0000

In a residency at IASPIS – Stockholm, in order to develop the new project: The Stalin of Otakar Švec.

The Stalin of Otakar Švec

Sebastien — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:33:04 +0000

Slipping Away

Sebastien — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:13:37 +0000

Text about the exhibition “Slipping Away” in Etikett, Malmö by Emil Nilsson

Pdf of the project

Postscript

Sebastien — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:46:05 +0000

Sébastien Berthier and Shirin Sabahi in Conversation
On the new politics of memory in an ethnographic museum and a utopian housing project.

Artist Book, 34 pages, edition of 100, Stockholm, 2009
Exhibited at Botkyrka Konsthall, Tumba, Sweden : Labyrint 09 – Writings and Observations, Curated by Joanna Sandell and Pia Sandström
PDF of the project

About my artistic practice

Sebastien — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 00:00:15 +0000

My artistic practice is primarily based on research within fields that I do not have a pre-existent expertise or knowledge. Acting as an observer, I construct my own reflections by selecting, comparing, interpreting and weaving different narrative elements through a free “ play of associations and dissociations” *. As a stance but also as an object of critique, I deconstruct through my work master discourses: the ones of the truth makers who designate who has agency, a voice in the political sphere and who is devoid of it. These authoritarian movements can be found under the name of positive discrimination and race-based census — as in my work “ De-nigrations” — or in the mystification of Karl Marx’s remnants by the Communist Party — as in “ The Tombstone Where (…)” . In my practice I investigate blind spots of history, moments when men seem to be struck by amnesia, to bring critical enlightenings. In order to do so, I engage in contemporary political questions, but at the same time conflate this social awareness with historical references sprung from art history. In an associative way, I confront Otto Neurath’s universal visual language (Isotype) with prejudices embodied by the census of a population or, for an upcoming project, Jacob Epstein’s modern sculptures within the Western post-colonial influence. I am interested in combining found images, archival material, research documents in my works which question the ground upon which ‘objectivity’ relies.

* “ Being a spectator is not a condition we have to change : It is our normal condition. We enact a free play of associations and dissociations also as a spectator.” , Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated Spectator, La Fabrique Editions, 2008