Bernadette Corporation
Untitled, 2008

Artist
Bernadette Corporation

Title
Untitled

Year of creation
2008

Technology and dimensions
installation, size variable

Year of acquisition
2008

Acquisition of the foundation

The works of the Bernadette Corporation seem like documentaries. In the display cases there are books, small monitors, printed T-shirts or photos with magnifying glasses on them. On the wall hangs a programmatic text about our own identity as an artist group, and scenes from a fashion show are shown on the large monitor. Larger photo prints also show models who usually look a bit bored and are not focused on the moment of the photo. And the room actually documents some of the group's projects, such as the collectively written novel "Reena Spaulings", the fashion projects created in Paris in the late 1990s or the "Pedestrian Cinema" project from 2007, which focuses on cinematic perceptions. At the same time, the works and materials shown are but always more than just documentation. In the strictest sense, there is no actual event that could be documented. The projects simply exist in different formats, one of which is the exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof.

What emerges is a working principle that does not refer to something that is absent, but rather relates the individual elements directly to one another. The worlds of fashion, novels, film and conceptual art are interwoven. What is discussed is the movement of the group itself, which tries to get involved in these different social fields, but also repeatedly withdraws from them. Instead of a one-dimensional artistic career model in one of these fields, a confusing game about identities and professional demands, responsibilities and attributions is staged. The works repeatedly address the act of perception itself and thus involve the viewer in this game.