In the work of David Bergé (he/him), audiences participate, through hybrid and post digital formats, into a journey of time-based installations, site-specific interventions, and text pieces – spoken and published. However, what he is most known for are his Walk Pieces, in which he takes small groups of humans for a walk, an immersive experience in silence, sliding along and piercing through the physical and climatic conditions of the built environment.
With a background in photography, David Bergé worked from 2012 onwards extensively with the archive of photographs taken by August Klipstein and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who would later be known as Le Corbusier) during their ‘Voyage en Orient’ from 1911. Two installations and a book negotiate the production of documents from this historic trip, slowly uncovering an early 20th-century desire for understanding spatial relations rather than photographic representation.
David Bergé’s work has been commissioned by and presented at M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (2021), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden (SKD, 2018), Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp (2018, 2015, 2016); Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art (2018); Out of Sight, a venue for contemporary art in Antwerp (2019); Z33 / Atelier Bouwmeester in Brussels (2017); Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius (CAC, 2015); STUK arts center in Leuven (2017, 2013); SALT, Istanbul (2011); KCB Belgrade (2022, 2013), NETWERK Center for Contemporary Art, Aalst (2019, 2015, 2012, 2009); Maison Particulière, Brussels (2014); Gati New Delhi (2011); TanzQuartier Wien, Vienna (2010) and Kunsthaus Muerz, Muerzzuschlag (2012).
As a platform to experiment with material and embodied forms of writing, Bergé founded in the first lockdown the publishing project PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPANDED PUBLISHING ATHENS, which has currently two imprints: kyklàda.press and Time Based Editions. Furthermore Bergé published books with Spector Books (2023, forthcoming), Jap Sam Books (2020), MER. Paper Kunsthalle (2015), and others.
Working through and with site-specificity, David Bergé has been invited to artist in residence programs around the world, such as Pivô (São Paulo), The Cape Cod Modern House Trust (Wellfleet, USA), Beta-Local (San Juan, Puerto Rico), geoAIR (Tbilisi), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, curator: Andre Lepecki) and the Saari Residence of the Kone Foundation in Finland.
David Bergé currently lives in Athens, Berlin, and Brussels and holds an MA from the Dutch Art Institute (2017) and an MFA and BA from LUCA Brussels (2005).