Lene Berg

In the project Encounter: Gentlemen & Arseholes Berg reproduced the first edition of the literary magazine Encounter (magazine) from 1953, inserting her own notes and images between the pages of the magazine's original content.

The additional materials were collected from books, newspapers, private albums and conversations, and were not available to the public at the time of the original publication.

The inserts shed new light on the CIA’s engagement in the Cultural Cold War, as expressed through the original magazine.

The story of individuals engaged in the magazine is further expanded upon in the film The Man in the Background.

In the film The Man in the Background Berg investigates the fate and role of Michael Josselson, director of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, in the Cold War era.

The video material consists of Josselson's private super-8 footage from a vacation in 1958 and interviews with his widow Diana, shot nearly 50 years later.

Lene Berg (born 1965) is a Norwegian film director and artist, who works in Oslo and Berlin.

Her artistic praxis includes film, installation, collage and text-based work.

She has produced a number of projects in public spaces and directed four independently produced feature-length films.

Lene Berg was born in Oslo 1965, to sociologist Mie Berg Simonsen and film director Arnljot Berg.

Growing up in Oslo, Berg attended the Oslo Waldorf School and Forsøksgymnaset in Oslo.

In 1966, the New York Times revealed that the Congress for Cultural Freedom had received funding from the CIA, and thus it was exposed that the Josselsons had lied to everyone around them for nearly two decades.

The revelation changed the life of the Josselsons radically and painfully.

Furthermore, the film poses questions about the other contributors to the magazine, their complicity and the scapegoating of the Josselsons.

Stalin by Picasso consists of a book and a film, as well as an outdoor banner, depicting the eponymous portrait, that Berg intended to hang on the facade of Folketeateret at Youngstorget in Oslo.

The project received wide media attention when it was revealed that the Norwegian Labour Party, represented by Martin Kolberg, had stopped the realization of the project.

In the late 1990s her work began to be shown in contemporary art venues.

Berg's work is often characterized by a hybrid format, mixing genres, using different forms of media, narrative structures and artistic techniques, to investigate historical and political topics.

A common theme in many of her projects is how a particular notion of truth is contingent, and how reality might be considered differently through the inclusion of additional stories, or an alternative perspective.

She graduated in 1992 with a degree in film directing from Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm (University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre in Stockholm).

Her debut full-length feature En Kvinnas Huvud (1997) was produced by Hinden/Länna-Ateljéerna AB.

Educated as a film director Berg integrates not only film, but also text and collage and installations in her work.

The banner was also part of Berg's exhibition at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2008, but again was met strong reactions and was taken down without Berg's consent after only two days.

The original portrait was also met with harsh critique.

The drawing was commissioned by Louis Aragon, the editor of the French communist party's weekly magazine Les Lettres Françaises.

However, after much criticism from fellow party members and colleagues Aragon chose to distance himself from the portrait.

The project addresses the relationship between art and politics, free speech, and the ways in which art challenges political narratives and structures.

The film Kopfkino consists of a series of stories told by eight women, seven of whom are BDSM sex workers, and one working as an actress.

The women are gathered around a table, dressed as different female clichés of sexual fantasies.

They all face the camera, which slowly moves from person to personas the women share their stories and experiences and discuss the work they do or have done.

Intimate details and descriptions of taboos highlight questions of forbidden sexual fantasies and the limits between sexual pleasure and violation.

Ultimately the film asks what constitutes reality in a universe governed by fictional roles and games, as in BDSM.

She represented Norway in the 55th Venice Biennale with the film Dirty Young Loose (2013).

In 2022 she was invited to the prestigious Norwegian Festival Exhibition at the Bergen Kunsthall for which she produced the large-scale exhibition Fra Far.

In 2023 her novel with the same title was published by Kolon Forlag.

She is a member of the Norwegian Visual Artist Guilds NBK & UKS, the Directors Guild of Norway and The Writers Guild of Norway.

She co-founded the distribution agency Filmbyrået Jack and the production company VIDEONOVA.

In 2013, Kopfkino won the Best Documentary at the 8th Porn Film Festival in Berlin and the Art Critic's Award in Norway.

It was also nominated for Best Documentary at the Amanda Award, Norway and Best Nordic Documentary at CPH:DOX, Denmark.

The film Dirty Young Loose shows three persons being interrogated, one after another, late one evening after they have acted together in a hotel room scene.