BERNARD VIENAT
curator and director of art-werk, based in Geneva based in Berlin
“As I am constantly navigating between Geneva and Berlin, visiting exhibitions and artists' studios in Europe, I like to say that, avoiding as much as possible to travel by plane, my main home is the train.”
Since Bernard is rarely in his Berlin apartment, the places where he can be most frequently found are the kitchen, where he experiments with new recipes and shares dinners with his friends or the bedroom, where he discovers or rediscovers certain books.
Bernard is grateful for the contribution of Giles Deleuze who gave him essential reading keys that accompany him in his reading of Spinoza's ethics. A book that accompanies him in his daily life and for which he has the greatest respect.
This bowl is a present from Bernard’s best friend. He brought it from India.
There are many artworks in Bernard’s apartment. Most of them are from the exhibitions he organized. Sometimes it's not easy to decide what to hang on the wall and for what to find another place. As some collectors he chose the strategy of having artworks everywhere. All of them have their own story: of exchanges with artists, exhibitions realized with them or of written texts influenced by these works.
Bernard likes a Swiss artist called Denis Savary who recreated a series of “Intimités” after the Swiss painter Felix Valloton. Normally, after printing a certain amount of lithographs the metal plate that has been used for printing is destroyed, making it impossible to use it again.
But Vallotton destroyed the plates in a specific way. He just cut out the parts depicting the woman’s head. It was a woman he was in love with, but she was married to his friend. Denis Savary, with the agreement of Valloton’s estate, had the chance to get the plates and reprinted them. This allows for the spectator to admire the images, reflecting on the relationship of the artist with his/her muse.
We talked a lot about having personal space and feeling safe at home. Bernard said: “I think the most personal thing here is my bookshelf. Because what you read tells people who you are”
Bernard has a Tibetan statuette of Buddha dated to the 18th century. Normally this Buddha is pictured with a bowl. The liquid in the bowl gives him eternal life. But this Buddha doesn’t have it so he might not care about eternal life. More than eternity, the most important thing is to focus on the present moment and to defend the future of the next generations and the people already affected by climate change as well as social and political conflicts.
Another important thing for Bernard is this floor vase. His girlfriend bought it for him when they were in a flea market. Without having been created as a work of art, it speaks by its form, its colors and highlights how each being or object has its aesthetic relevance, its place in the room.
It’s an artwork Bernard created with his business partner of the non-profit art4biodiversity Andreas Greiner that is sold on the benefit of planting symbolic trees in cities and fostering initiatives that link art and environment. In this coin you can see a robot planting a tree on Mars. The image refers to a woman pictured in the 50 Deutsch Mark Pfenning who were shown replanting the forest (an oak tree) after The Second World War.
When Bernard collected his bag he shared with me some of his reflections
"Heidegger always traveled with one unread book. I think for now, I could take only two. If I take Spinosa and Malarme I will always have what to think about"
"I was trying to find elegant clothes because although clothes don’t make a man, most people still judge books by their cover. So it seems important to me to look fresh and beautiful in order to please some new acquaintances. All the pieces are also connected to the memories of where I bought it or where I wore them"
"I think I'm not too attached to objects. So I collected a bag with a more practical perspective. Something I need and then a bit of symbols. But I have an impression that most things are in my head".
