Tobias Berger

To successfully work in five institutions on three continents in a time span of eight years demands a certain degree of principles and ideas. I see myself as a ‘resident traveller’, someone who stays for some time in one place, settles down and has the time, not only to get to know local idiosyncrasies and achievements, but also to articulate those niches that are perhaps more noticeable to an outsider.

This position – between someone who has already been familiar for some years with the local scene and yet still remains an outsider and can therefore pass neutral judgement in situ – makes it possible for me to work ambitiously in these respective circumstances and to bring considerable momentum to the local scene. For the Triennial I curated in Vilnius, entitled “Centre of Attraction,” I defined the principle of “curating in concentric circles.”

This asserts that the relevance to the exhibition of the spatial and temporal starting point of any participating artist increases in accordance with his/her actual physical distance from the exhibition venue. This principle makes it possible to curate exciting exhibitions that bring together local and international artists, and to correlate older generations and new ideas.

In my curatorial work, I have frequently experimented with the exhibition format itself: “Asian Art Spaces” for example, invited the most important independent institutions in Asia to each exhibit a box-space, which represented their self-perception as an institution. “Free NZ Art” produced 12 x 4000 posters by New Zealand artists, which the public in Auckland, Hongkong, Saigon and Amsterdam could take home with them. “Stable – the balance of Power” took place in a labyrinth of large vinyl banners, which were all printed with important works of art dealing with the theme of space, while “Remember New Zealand” exhibited more than 30 “souvenirs” of New Zealand artists at the Sao Paulo Biennale.

Tobias Berger (2007)