The Studio #2: Morena Bamberger, Ethereality
November 26, 2019 – April 12, 2020
On November 24, 2019, Ger Koopmans, deputy for Culture of the Province of Limburg, will open the second edition of the new series The Studio in the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands. The Studio provides a platform for small-scale solo presentations, in which artists give an account of recent developments in their work. In this second studio presentation, it is the turn of artist Morena Bamberger (Roermond, 1994), who is presenting Ethereality, a new room-sized work inspired by a journey to Switzerland.
Boundless, Intangible Imagination & Everyday Normality
Ethereality is a contraction of two words with opposite meanings: ethereal and reality. The installation of video images shows an alienating mix of boundless, intangible imagination and everyday normality, which is characteristic of this artist. She conjures up her mysterious world with simple materials like plastic sheeting, glitter fabrics and polystyrene sheets, which she paints in pastel colors, with turning windmills that scatter moving gleaming lights through the space like stardust.
Here and there, projected video images show a world between reality and dream. For the film, Bamberger went on a spiritual journey to the Swiss mountains – a sort of “vision quest,” as she calls it – to get closer to her intuition and experience her vulnerability and strength. It is the first time that Morena Bamberger is the protagonist of her film. During the past 2 years, her work has attracted attention for the way in which she explored the surroundings of Roermond with her video camera, and the totally open way in which she filmed friends, family and passers-by. This produced some unexpected, disturbing happenings, as shown in her wonderful graduation film Home ground from 2018.
Sinti Community
The wish to create harmonious connections between people, animals and landscape can apparently be explained by her background. She grew up on a caravan camp in the vicinity of Roermond but chose to follow her own path, away from the close Sinti community, to become the first member of her family to study. In 2017, Bamberger made a film about this, called Terug naar de Roedel (Back to the pack). To do so, she returned to the caravan camp for a while in an attempt to link up with her family again through her work and experiences.
Stimulating the Work of Young Artists From Limburg
Artist Morena Bamberger is the first recipient of the Limburg Beeldende Kunst Stipendium (LBK), a new grant set up by the Province of Limburg that aims to stimulate the work of young artists from Limburg and bring it to the attention of a wider public. The grant comprises a working period at the Jan van Eyck Academy, an exhibition in The Studio and the sum of € 5,000. The time Morena Bamberger spent at the Jan van Eyck Academy in October and November 2019 is followed by a presentation of her work in the project space of the Bonnefantenmuseum. In 2018, the LBK Stipendium was awarded as the Lex ter Braak stipendium to Lex ter Braak, on leaving his post as director of the Jan van Eyck Academy.
Studio Presentation
The Studio #2: Morena Bamberger, Ethereality will be shown in the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands, from November 26, 2019, to April 12, 2020.