- The videowork of Judith van den Berg seems to breathe pleasure and lightness. Her way of dealing with reality is a special one, which we find in children and good artists. She disturbs the way we see things, or the way we think we should see things. Judith van den Berg shows that the way we handle everyday life is dependant on lots of agreements. And when we take a closer look, these agreements are not as logical as they seem. Martine Herman (Martine Herman wrote this text during her time as curator urban screen at CBK Rotterdam)
- The way Judith van den Berg translates her artistic thinking is directly linked to actual situations. In most of her works the observer plays an important role. He is directly connected to the idea and to the actual presentation. Not only in an imaginative sense, sometimes the observer even functions as an invisibly directed performer, who performs the assignments of the artist/director. By subtle archeology-like research Judith van den Berg sometimes discovers recurring traces of the human mind in matter or in sociologically determined habits. She registers these patterns or typical tendencies in clear and often humourous images. As artist-researcher she decreases the historic gap between science and art, and she contributes to the bridging of seemingly opposite disciplines. Her work can transform the toughest subjects or stereotypes into an exciting and comprehensible instrument of communication. Mique Eggermont (Art historian, curator, critic. Mique Eggermont unfortunately died in September 2019)
- Van den Berg is playing with everything that seems self-evident. Her concepts are about views and about being aware of these views. It is like a simple walk on the pavement, when suddenly you step on an uneven-lying tile. What we normally take for granted is suddenly made visible again. Carefully, she peels the layers of her ideas, until only the heart of the idea remains. Her installations let reality and fiction mingle, and create clear and subtle stories. An intelligent artist, who sees it as her mission to present complex ideas in a plain and accessible way. Jury De Scheffer/Scheffergrant 2003 Dordrechts Museum (Theun Okkerse, Henk van Dalen, Lizan Freijsen, Nico Parlevliet, Moniek Peters)
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It took a while before we had found the right moment and the right framework for “The day I became a work of art” by Judith van den Berg. But when in September the collection presentation of the Middelheim Museum was supplemented from one moment to the next with countless ‘figures’ (with dog, with child, with father, seen on back), it happened silently and with an apparent effortlessness.
As convincing as the artwork was accepted by our visitors, however, it was thorny by me. I had a hard time with the conscious switch from subject to object, with the forced choices, with the execution of a meticulously written scenario, with the willing surrender to the gaze of the spectators.
What then does this work with the museum? What does it do with the relationship between the sculptures and the spectators? Or between the spectators? In the conversations afterwards, also in response to the lecture Judith van den Berg gave, it turned out that people had experienced a sense of belonging together. And even more interesting, it had changed their view on the artist. The artist who does not enter the museum as a maker or owner of an object, but as a mediator. The artist who not only contributes his own vision or form, but who is also present, approachable. The artist who makes a modest gesture, gives a gentle nudge, makes a connection between one and the other. A bit like a title sign is the first, simple way in which the identity of the artwork is mediated with that of the spectator. And so the artist does provide interesting conversation material here: by shifting the occupied positions of maker, object, spectator and mediator. By allowing us to try out other perspectives. Sara Weyns (Director Middelheimmuseum Antwerp (BE)