Biography

Berna Reale (b. 1965, Belém do Pará, Brazil) is one of Brazil's most important contemporary artists. She is mostly known for her performance based work, which she has been developing since the 2000s. She first received public attention in 2006 at the 25th Art Salon of Pará, following her presentation of Cerne.The work consists of a photographic intervention carried out at the meat market located in Ver-o-Peso, a traditional center for street markets and stands bustling with tourists and local shoppers in Belém, Brazil.

 

Since then, the artist has been exploring and developing the idea of using her own body as the central aesthetic element of her images and performances, through which she aims to denounce social problems and injustices. Her work critically engages with the theme of violence, exploring its symbolic and physical representations, and the inevitable shadow of censorship, as a means of revealing the importance of image-making when it comes to maintaining freedom of thought. The strength of Berna Reale's imagery lies in eliciting a desire to get closer, countered by a sense of repulsion - an ambivalence reminiscent of the irony in Brazilian society's fascination for and disgust of violence. Importantly, Berna Reale's work has come to heavily depend on photography as a tool for not only registering, but also perpetuating and disseminating her actions once the performance is over. 

 

Berna Reale lives and works in Belém do Pará, Brazil. Recent solo shows include: Agora: Right Now, at Nara Roesler (2022), in New York, USA; Festa, at Viaduto das Artes (2019), in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Deformation, at Bergkirche (2017), and Berna Reale – Über uns / About Us, at Kunsthaus (2017), both in Wiesbaden, Germany; Berna Reale: Singing in the Rain, at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMoCA) (2016), in Salt Lake City, USA; Vazio de nós, at Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) (2013), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Recent group shows include: Brasilidade Pós-Modernismo, at Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB-SP) (2022), in São Paulo, Brazil; 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial, China (2018); 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015); Brasile. Il coltello nella carne, at Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea Milano (PAC-Milano) (2018), in Milan, Italy; Video Art in Latin America, II Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (II PST: LA/LA), at LAXART (2017), in Hollywood, USA; Artistas comprometidos? Talvez, at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG) (2014), in Lisbon, Portugal. Her works are included in important institutional collections, such as: Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil; Kunsthaus Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP), São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and JW Collection, Atlanta, USA.

Exhibitions

News

Press

  • Forensic Artist: The powerful performance art of crime scene investigator Berna Reale Download

    Forensic Artist: The powerful performance art of crime scene investigator Berna Reale

    Cynthia Garcia, New City Brazil 25.9.2018
  • Download

    "Vão"

    Bruno Yutaka Saito, Valor Econômico 11.8.2017
  • berna reale cria feminismo rosa-choque Download

    berna reale cria feminismo rosa-choque

    Silas Martí, Ilustrada 16.7.2017
  • berna reale enxuga gelo em individual no ccbb-sp Download

    berna reale enxuga gelo em individual no ccbb-sp

    Alessandro Giannini, O Globo 15.7.2017
  • agenda: individual de berna reale no CCBB é o destaque da semana em são paulo Download

    agenda: individual de berna reale no CCBB é o destaque da semana em são paulo

    Brasileiros 15.7.2017
  • berna reale, a simbiose entre a arte e a perícia criminal: “não sou de museu, gosto da rua” Download

    berna reale, a simbiose entre a arte e a perícia criminal: “não sou de museu, gosto da rua”

    Marina Rossi, El País 14.7.2017
  • o som do soco no ar Download

    o som do soco no ar

    Ana Abril, Select 12.7.2017
  • Video oediV review - where and what is video art in 2016? Download

    Video oediV review - where and what is video art in 2016?

    Andrew Frost, The Guardian 29.1.2016
  • berna reale fala do tema da violência em suas obras para o 34 Panorama do MAM Download

    berna reale fala do tema da violência em suas obras para o 34 Panorama do MAM

    Camila Molina, Estadão 13.10.2015
  • representante do brasil na 56 bienal de veneza, berna reale leva obras para as ruas Download

    representante do brasil na 56 bienal de veneza, berna reale leva obras para as ruas

    Camila Molina, O Estado de S. Paulo 28.4.2015

Video

Critical Essays

  • berna reale: gula

    agnaldo farias
    Published in 1945, the poem “O Medo” [Fear] by Drummond, bears as an epigraph a phrase by Antonio Cândido – “Porque há para todos nós um problema sério (...). Este problema é o do medo” [Because there is a serious problem for all of us (…). This problem is that of fear” – an excerpt from a statement by the great intellectual made about the impact of World War II, about Nazi-fascism, and the repression of the Estado Novo. And since then the situation has become much worse. We live in a climate of civil war, as evidenced by the operation of the Armed Forces in Rio de Janeiro, our former post-card city, today a landscape of apprehension and sadness. Berna Reale is deepening her investigation into violence, aware that it, among all the mothers of fear, is the greatest and most direct. Her performances, videos, photographs and installations have garnered her national and international recognition. All of this has taken place within the last decade, when the...