You Never Know the Whole Story Video Art and New Media from the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection

The English idiom “never judge someone, because you'll never know the whole story” warns us against judging people untowardly. It is likewise the case with contemporary art – we do not yet know the full story because the categories of evaluating it are in a constant state of flux. Nevertheless, the collection gathers together the key art trends over the last thirty years, such as the impact of film on all media as well as the emergence and consolidation of photography as an artistic medium. In the selection of works, which were produced between 1970 and the present, artists celebrate photography and film in their entire multifaceted spectrum of expression, collecting found footage, reinterpreting film history, touching on the sociological conditions of the film industry and acknowledging the power of landscape in monumental panoramas. They cite urban imagery as digital figural patterns, pay tribute to famous architectural icons, and search for the abstract in the concrete as much as for the poetic in banality. The works are from the holdings of Stiftung GegenwART, Stiftung Kunsthalle Bern, Bernische Stiftung für Foto, Film und Video and Sammlung Kunst Heute.

The exhibition features works by Judith Albert, Max Almy, Hanspeter Ammann, Knut Asdam, Klaus vom Bruch, Balthasar Burkhard, Dimitri Devyatkin, Herbert Distel, Anne Katrine Dolven, Chris Evans, Peter Fischli / David Weiss, Kit Fitzgerald, Herbert Fritsch, Michael von Graffenried, Luzia Hürzeler, Friederike Ute Jürss, Jutta Koether, Jochen Kuhn, Muriel Kunz, Maria Lassnig, Les Levine, Mark Lewis, Carlo Lischetti, MadeIn Company, Cory McCorkle, Gérald Minkoff, Tatsuyo Miyajima, Irene Muñoz, Muriel Olesen, Uriel Orlow, Mai-Thu Perret, Elodie Pong, René Pulfer, Markus Raetz, Pamela Rosenkranz, Christoph Rütimann, Sean Scully, Francisco Sierra, Tom Skapoda