Artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark
Rune Bering, Portrait of the photographer
Tell us about yourself, what's your background?
My background is in design, but I quickly realized that I wasn’t interested in finding solutions. Instead, it was more important to me to use my work to ask questions and initiate investigations about our world, especially our everyday worlds.
Harddisk Archive (1 + 2) 2021 Plaster, graphite, pigments, cable tray, heavy duty (trolley) wheels Photo: Hampus berndtson
"I’m interested in the fact that biodiversity ‘increases’ in the digital world as it decreases in the biological reality. That brings me to my interest in fossils, and what kind of traces these new life forms leave. "
Butterfly Box, 2021. Printed circuit boards, butterfly, butterfly info labels, aluminium frame Photo: Hampus berndtson
What are you currently working on and where did the inspiration for it come from?
I’m working on a few different themes that I am connecting in my sculptures. I’m interested in the fact that biodiversity ‘increases’ in the digital world as it decreases in the biological reality. That brings me to my interest in fossils, and what kind of traces these new life forms leave. So I am working at the meeting point of geology, nature and digital structures, as a kind of future archeologist, where I create my own objects of research.
Harddisk Archive, close up. 2021, Graphite, plaster, pigments, gravel, cable tray, heavy duty (trolley) wheels. Photo: Hampus berndtson
Working at the studio on exhibition Distant Sky
Harddisk Archive (1 + 2) 2021 Plaster, graphite, pigments, cable tray, heavy duty (trolley) wheels Photo: Hampus berndtson
Describe your practice and process. Where do ideas start for you? In the studio or being in the world?
I am interested in systems of meaning - technologies, communication media, and archives. I examine how these systems manifest physically in materials and conceptually in relationships between people. The digital world, nature, and our history run on such inherent structures. I try to understand social and cultural changes by uncovering how their underlying systems behave and interconnect.
Scene from the studio, work in progress
My artistic practice can be described as that of an excavator and editor. Among technological developments, marketing strategies, and political agendas, I search for what things consist of, their production, and their context. I work with found systems that I stage through new materials and new forms. Focusing on objects that we deal with on a daily basis, and often do not attach much importance to, I persistently hone in on the glitches, shifts, and breaches of interpretation between subjective choices and existing protocols. By avoiding definitive conclusions or judgment, I instead seek to expose the complexity of topics that are socially relevant but often disguised as banal.
Butterfly Box, 2021. Close up. Printed circuit boards, butterfly, butterfly info labels, aluminium frame Photo: Hampus berndtson
How do you make your work, does it start with a sketch?
It always starts with an idea, something I see, or find. Then I work simultaneously with the concept, materials, and form. They inform each other.
Do you have your own studio ritual? What does that look like for you?
My studio has two states that complement each other. Sometimes it is very messy, when I work on different things and experiments at the same time. And at other times, it is perfectly clean—that’s when I go into details and finishing works.
Who are your biggest influences?
My parents, probably.
Are there books or films that are an important source of inspiration?
Ursula Le Guin’s books
How will Innovate Grant contribute to your practice?
I will spend the grant on materials.
Cosmos-field-730379245 (2021) Laserprint, paper, printer tray Photo: Hampus berndtson
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Probably something from my girlfriend 🙂
What is the best advice you would give to other artists?
To be honest with yourself.
Untitled (2019) Close-Up: burning screens
View Rune Bering's Portfolio
Stay up to date with Rune Bering
Instagram @runebering
www.runebering.dk