For the first time in Milan, an exhibition by photographer Hans Georg Berger

From April 8 to July 16, gallery 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS presents, for the first time in Milan, the work of German photographer and writer Hans Georg Berger (Trier, 1951). The exhibition, titled The learning photographer, brings together more than 30 black-and-white silver gelatin photographs printed on fine art baryta paper produced from negatives kept in the German artist’s archive and carefully selected by the gallery directors and the artist.

The works in the exhibition trace a 50-year career beginning in the 1970s, when the artist became involved in the restoration of theHermitage of Santa Caterina on Elba Island. Berger transformed the former Franciscan convent into an international art center that for years proved to be a melting pot of ideas and experiences of artist friends, writers, painters and photographers. It was here that the pivotal meeting between Berger and French writer and critic Hervé Guibert took place, with whom he established - in addition to a strong emotional bond - a photographic and intellectual relationship.

The exhibition traces Berger’s travels, both personal and artistic, and his trips to Asia. These photographs reveal the close ties the artist built with these places and their inhabitants. Through a deep shared understanding built between Berger and his subjects, the photographer breaks down the emotional distance between the photographer and the object of representation, presenting us with an intimate portrait of the Orient.

The purpose of the exhibition is to tell the story of an out-of-the-ordinary life and career. The many themes on offer represent Berger’s countless experiences and strike the viewer who takes away a consistent thread: the search for intimacy between photographer and subject that Berger had already experimented with Guibert and that later became his own visual language and stylistic signature. From the sensuality of his nudes and unmade beds, to his landscapes and portraits of the Orient, the power of these photographs lies in the artist’s ability to convey the soul of all his subjects, creating, without exception, powerful and poetic images of radically different subjects in distant lands. It is an extraordinary, probably unique journey to the center of great contemporary photography.

The exhibition is accompanied by the Hans Georg Berger art book, personally signed by the artist and embellished by the addition of an original artwork. The book has been published in a limited edition by the 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery in collaboration with the Museo delle Culture in Lugano and contains accurate reproductions of seventy-five photographs-some of them previously unpublished-accompanied by texts and poetic material by the famous writers and figures who surrounded the artist’s life.

To visit the exhibition, advance reservations are required by writing to: staff@29artsinprogress.com .

For all information, you can visit the official website of the gallery 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS.

Pictured: Hans Georg Berger, Offering (1997)

For the first time in Milan, an exhibition by photographer Hans Georg Berger

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