Is it M for materials? or M for Martin?
In 2005, nostalgically remembering the pages of a magazine transferred onto blank sheets of paper with trichloroethylene, Martin Berger imagined doing something like it, putting images - photographs, graphics, drawings - on panels that can be assembled, constructing decorative compositions, or modern frescos.
Since no ad hoc process exists, he works with experts in large format printing. With them, he develops proprietary technology solutions.
Thanks to his love for "diversions" and his technical curiosity, he has also developed a method of decorative art, which enables him to print images on the surface of concrete among others...
What images? They can be anything; many of them are personal photographs taken during trips or daily commutes. ;Some images need to be reworked before transferring, so that the material and iconography are sure to create a beautiful effect together.
After the image has been placed on the concrete, Martin Berger performs important refinements in his workshop to enhance the color and the effects of the materials and light. Here and there, he adds volume to a detail, making an indentation... It ensures that the image melds nicely into the materials.
Martin Berger has thus invented a support and a new process that are particularly well suited for printing photos. Recognizing this unique expertise, art photographers often entrust Martin with their photos, thus creating new composite works.
"I was tempted by the cement, the essential substance of this series, and by many other works, to capture excerpts from the material.
The photo, lighter and more delicate, is deposited, almost melted into the material to intentionally give it weight in a given space or processed environment.
This mixed material, often somber, and sometimes inert, is a medium that allows me through its outdated, filtered plasticity, to translate to my own feelings vis-à-vis our world. " (Martin Berger, extracted from the catalog of the exhibition Borderline- Grenoble, March 2010)
