By painting from photographs, Bjerger furthermore feels that she is able to bring out another dimension of that particular photo: “The idea of bringing them out of this context into another context where they become something else, that’s kind of a goal.”

Bjerger believes that you can indeed “force inspiration by having a strict work ethics.” She does, however, argue that intellectual thoughts should be kept apart from the process of painting, as you need to be completely present in the painting itself. In other words, painting needs to be thrilling: “To me it’s physical, it’s painting, it’s a space and it’s paint, it’s brush marks, it’s time – that’s what it is. And it’s wherever that will take you. But I don’t really want to know where I’m going to end up. I want it to be a journey.”

Anna Bjerger (b. 1973) is a Swedish painter, whose starting point is other people’s pictures. Bjerger paints with quick strokes against a background of anonymous photographs of objects, landscapes and people – thus reworking something that has already been pictorialized before it reaches her. Bjerger has exhibited in Europe and the US, including David Risley Gallery in Copenhagen and Dublin Contemporary.

Anna Bjerger was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg at her home in Småland, Sweden in February 2016.

Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edited and produced by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2016