Apparently, this feeling also occurred to the gallery directors at Elektrohalle Rhomberg when they first presented Linda Berger’s works [1], leading to their invitation to use one of their rooms as a canvas. Five years after her last on-site intervention [2], the artist now presents Stricheraum IIII. Prior from entering into the room where the intervention was executed, one will be immediately confronted with an artwork of the artist. „So you can see“ [3] serves in a way as a kind of signboard to indicate that you are approaching the artists fourth intervention.
But how does such a space come into being? Large quantities of paper are required. The industry does not yet produce such large formats, so the artist will assemble sheets of paper, adhere them to each other delicately. The strokes that she draws with a trimmed brush adds to the illusion of them becoming one. Preparatory tools do not come into play – no sketches, no premonitions, no expectations. Starting from a blank sheet is very important to Berger.
Linda Berger, Strichraum IIII, 2021 | Whiskey Room at Elektrohalle Rhomberg | Photo: Rudolf Strobl 
Linda Berger, Strichraum IIII, 2021 | Whiskey Room at Elektrohalle Rhomberg | Photo: Rudolf Strobl 
Linda Berger, Strichraum IIII, 2021 | Whiskey Room at Elektrohalle Rhomberg | Photo: Rudolf Strobl 
Linda Berger, Strichraum IIII, 2021 | Whiskey Room at Elektrohalle Rhomberg | Photo: Rudolf Strobl
Documentation. This time the process of the first strokes and lines have even been documented by the artist herself. Every 60 seconds the camera clicking till declaring the documentation to be ended. The making of lines on the ceiling and floor is not shown to leave room for imagination.
The space and all the given requisites, from the minuscule details to the larger ones, seem to be swallowed up by the artist’s world. Everything is covered with strokes. The emerged world is meant for people to pause, take time to linger, wonder, untangle mental knots, hear the sound of footsteps on paper. If possible the artist wishes that a „reset“ can take place in the viewer’s mind.
Nevertheless, Linda Berger has never tried to dictate anything, her main significance remains the process from the first to the last stroke.
Adresse und Kontakt:
Elektrohalle Rhomberg
Samergasse 28b, 5020 Salzburg
office@elektrohalle-rhomberg.net
www.elektrohalle-rhomberg.net
[1] Linda Berger’s works were part of the group exhibition „HEADY DAYS“ recommended by Les Nouveaux Riches at Elektrohalle Rhomberg, Salzburg, Austria – 22.05 – 03.07 2021. [2] The artist has as yet realized three active, walk-through Stricheräume. These interventions have been carried in two galleries and in a private apartment in Vienna. Despite the ephemeral nature, the interventions perdure to exist beyond the exhibitions. So room | becomes part of room || part of room ||| and so on (…) [3] So you can see, 2017, Ink on paper, 150 cm x 200 cm
