Marie José Burki

Some recent solo exhibitions
Centre pour l'image contemporaine Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva 2008
Galerie Baronian-Francey, Brussels 2007
Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York 2004

Some recent group exhibitions
Kunstmuseum Bonn, 2009, 'Ferne Nähe. "Natur" in der Kunst der Gegenwart'
MUHKA, Antwerp 2006, 'The projection project'

Selected publications
Alain Cueff; Simon Maurer, Marie José Burki: these days, Göttingen: Steidl 2007
Denis Gielen, Laurent Busine, Marie José Burki: conversation, Grand-Hornu: Musée des Arts Contemporains 2003

Selected public and corporate collections
SMAK, Ghent, BE • Musée d'Art Contemporain Lyon, FR • Centre PasquArt, Kunsthaus/Centre d'Art, Biel/Bienne, CH

Marie José Burki uses three distinct formats in her work: projection, screened video and installations that mix video and photographic techniques. These allow her to explore the contemporary world in three modalities: slow motion, close-ups or zoomed-out shots and fixed shots. The images depicting daily life scroll before our eyes like a contemporary painting. In that process, the notion of time becomes central: time expands, enlarges, fills up space and acts as a pivot in the action/non-action mechanism. Burki's work shows contemporary action, its temporality is elastic: there is action and yet nothing particular is going on. An infinitely small period of time in movement, which sometimes stops if the images suggest it. Whether the artist focuses on people, places or animals, she inscribes her images in a neutral set. She then invites the viewer to become immersed in her work to bring the story together. We are presented with scenes that, free of all connotations, are open to our analysis. A process of identification and detachment then takes place. Notions of time, space and perception are constantly questioned and often emphasize a certain inconsistency of the reality we live in.

Marie José Burki is a former advisor at the Rijksakademie.

www.mjburki.be