Céline Berger

A personal reinterpretation of a collection of instructional 16mm films from the German Employment Agency.

„Rare birds in these lands“ explores the rapprochement of the art and the business world in the Netherlands. On October the 21. 2012, four artists, three managers and a curator were invited to participate in a risk analysis workshop. The aim was to analyze the risks that an artist’s intervention in a company could represent for both partners. The voice-over of the video work is a direct transcription of statements gathered at this occasion, while the footage has been shot on location before and after the workshop.

This film deals with the startup eco-system in the Ruhr, the former German rust belt area, now devastated by unemployment. The local hope is that there will be a revitalization of the region through the creation of an ecosystem for startups. The film dives into the specific vocabulary and subtexts around these new economic hotspots.

And I measure deals with human-centered scientific experiments, exploring the concept of measurement when applied to ourselves. Our body parts, cleaned, fixed, connected, become an inexhaustible source of data. But why do we measure? What do we feel when we measure?