Sanna Helena Berger
LISTE 2026

The presentation is structured around two contrasting positions within Sanna Helena Berger’s practice: lack and abundance. The booth is divided by a single architectural intervention that creates a backroom space housing a plethora of works thematising lack, while the front of the booth forms a clean, stark space and presents a single work as the pièce de résistance— an emblem of Berger’s critical theory of the unreadymade, a foundational concept within her practice.

Facing the visitor, Berger’s unreadymade is articulated through a single sculptural work: a meticulously hand-crafted replica of the recognisably mass-produced BILLY bookcase. Referencing the ubiquitous domestic object, the work subverts its own origin, functioning as the antithesis of a commercial product in its new state as a singular and exclusive art object. It occupies the booth in an undisturbed and absolute manner, emphasising pathos and presence.

The unreadymade can be seen as an intellectual creation intentionally manufacturing meaning on par with material, prompting reflection on how we assign artistic value to objects via uniqueness or originality and how our experience of art is shaped by context and representation.

As an artistic strategy the unreadymade subverts such expectations. It challenges established norms and invites viewers to engage critically with the nature of art, perception, and authenticity. Undermining the dichotomy between ordinary and extraordinary, Berger’s Ersatz suggests a finer point at an art fair at which commodified art relies on exclusivity to uphold value—by presenting the exclusive in the utterly ordinary. And unlike the stark white of the “original”, Berger’s simulacrum shifts toward an off-white hue, carrying the lived-in tonalities and lived-with material subtleties that recur across her work, reflecting her ongoing engagement with traces, patinas, and muted residues embedded in found objects.

In sharp contrast, Berger’s site-specific backroom introduces an abundant density of works. Upon turning the corner, visitors encounter a constellation of works that vary in medium, scale, and form. Here, Berger thematises lack in her und zwar pieces—muted outlines replicate the residue, dust and grime potentially left around previously hung paintings, rendering visible the ­presence of an absence as well as the documentation of this absence—producing an image out of the lack of one. Her System works draw from Deleuzian notions of difference and repetition, in that they deviate whilst being from the same—­commonplace materials that appear white but are in fact not—their hues and gradients subtly shifting through them having been lived-with. Repeating material does not repeat meaning; each return to repetition alters the sculptural field. Discolouration is therefore the colour of these works; materials are salvaged precisely for their patina rather than discarded for their flaws; a gesture of negating the negative.

Panels of a large glass work, Mimisis, reflect surrounding the works, among them Kitchen Counter Realism, a stainless steel triptych, both of which strictly adhere to the “standard dimensions” of the BILLY bookcase. Flattened, they embody a painterly presence rather than an assembled utilitarian one. Tints, hues, and gradients of transparencies replace the presence of motifs and lay out the topology of a body of work that reveals itself in its reflection, mirroring back this lack of motif as motif.

In concert, these works operate within a conceptual field of simulacra and mimesis, positioning Berger’s practice within ongoing dialogues on painterly reduction, objecthood, and the performativity of display. The booth thus stages a deliberate tension between a single, austere sculptural statement and a broader, densely layered narrative confined to its antechamber. By using the booth as both display architecture and performative space, the presentation highlights Berger’s ability to move between restraint and abundance that draw from a cohesive material vocabulary and a clearly articulated theoretical framework—allowing the works to situate themselves both as individual sculptural positions and as integral elements of the total installation.

Biography
Sanna Helena Berger (born 1983, Sweden; lives and works in Berlin) is an autodidactic artist. Her recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Difference, Matteo Cantarella, Copenhagen (2026); und, zwar, WRG ­Braunschweig (2026); und, zwar (Dokumentation), Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig (2026); Absolut, Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2025); Opera, Cabinet Milano, Milan (2025); Metod, Antics, Stockholm (2025); miart (with Cecilie Norgaard), with Shahin Zarinbal and Matteo Cantarella, Milan (2025); Bourse, Centralbanken, Oslo (2024); Nicht-nur-Spekulativ, Philipp Zollinger, Zürich (2024); Die Installierte Reale (with Cecilie Norgaard), Rinde am Rhein, Düsseldorf (2024); Skulptur Projekte, Kaiserwache, Freiburg (2024); Concrete Arguments, Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2023); Rational Display, Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb (2023). Berger’s works in recent group exhibitions include Untitled participation, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2025); System, Prototyp and Produkt, Neu Cöln, Cologne (2025); Schmutztitel, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2025); METOD, Halle für Kunst Lüneburg (2025); Towards the centre of the field (the new is made comfortable by being made familiar), Simian, ­Copenhagen (2025), Ohne Ohne Titel, Philipp Zollinger, Zürich (2023); Mute Point, Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin (2023); Postural Fatigue, Bærum Kunsthall, Oslo (2023); Repräsentation, Waf Galerie, Vienna (2023); Minor Variations, Skånes Konstförening, Malmö (2023).

In October 2026, Berger will open her first instituional solo exhibition at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, titled Œuvre (working title), curated by Theresa Roessler.