ANNA-SOPHIE BERGER INTERVIEW. "My work is more a destillation process, a making order in the mess that is my creativity, selecting one thing over the other."

 

Tell us a bit of you Anna-Sophie, who are you?

I am an artist based in Vienna. I have been travelling a lot the last year after having finished my Master of the Arts in Vienna. Most recently to New-York city where my first solo show opened at JTT Gallery. My work is not limited to a specific media, I am a trained fashion designer and include the creation of garments in my practice. They therefore divergate between objects, clothes and sculptures. My work also includes performance and photography, combining all medias freely.

 

Why clothings in Art setting?

The question to me is only relevant in one sense: Why display an object that belongs to a moving body in a still setting : The answer would be that a change of context, say from body to wall/gallerie floor enables my objects to communicate different aspects. To undergo a change of context serves a thought process, it isolates things while it excludes others. This is what all fine art is busy with. The reason why I prefer the "Art Setting" to any other setting is the importance of authorship this market allows for. Both systems are ultimately driven by commercial interests, but different from a design process, as an artist I get to define my own pace and can ultimately put my ideas before practical use.

 

What's the favorite project you worked on?

That is normally the most recent one, so I would say the work I created for JTT in New-York.

 

What does “Fashion is Fast” mean in the context of your collection? It is an ironic as well as rational statement. The whole collection is nurished by real fast fashion, from H&M to Forever 21. I was sick of the elitist concerns of avantgarde fashion, I went and researched uniquely highly commercial structures, online and offline, but also while negotiating what trend is, "Fashion is Fast" is just a true statement. The preferences within a certain consume culture change ever so fast as to create new products, that is to sell new items. While there is good and bad sides to consumption, it definately fuels the creation of the new, in a way even creativity. This ambiguity fascinates me ; the collection is therefore a symbol for as well as a comment on fast fashion, or trend in general.

 

What are the challenges that prompt you to create? Whatever I do, I am full of ideas. My work is more a destillation process, a making order in the mess that is my creativity, selecting one thing over the other.

 

What were you doing Saturday night? I was in an airplane, coming back from New-York city.

 

Your ten favorite songs? I have one right now: Ariel Pink - Mature Themes

 

... A last word in french for our readers? Coucou! www.anna-sophie-berger.com

Images courtesy of JTT new york and the artist 2014

 

 

 

Extract from the Parallel Volume III,

Courtesy of the ITT Gallery 170a SUFFOLK STREET NEW YORK NY 10002 212-574-8152