Lene Berg

Contributions by Sabeth Buchmann, Katerina Gregos, Dieter Roelstraete
Edited by Caroline Ugelstad

As Katerina Gregos states in her essay “On the Pitfalls of History: Four Films by Lene Berg,” “The work of Lene Berg probes questions about the difference between truth and falsehood, between reality and fantasy, between veracity and mendacity. Berg crafts short, witty, incisive, and often humorous filmic stories, using lo-fi means such as drawing, photocopies, collage, and her own as well as found footage, to interrogate the question of history and historiography.” These themes, among others, are explored in Berg’s latest film, Kopfkino (2012), which was filmed over the course of two days in Berlin and focuses on eight women as they exchange stories about their line of work—the fulfillment of sexual fantasies. The scripted conversation evolves in front of the camera while the women use their own words and experiences. Real experiences and actual stories come together in a universe of illusions, fictions, and fantasies.

These parallel worlds are analyzed in this publication, which features essays by Sabeth Buchmann, who looks into the tensions of Kopfkino; Katerina Gregos, whose essay examines four of Berg’s earlier films; and Dieter Roelstraete, who provides an analysis of Berg’s ever-controversial work, Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of a Woman with Moustache (2008), among others.