WHAT BERGER BEGAT

1000 words on Surrender: Ways of Hearing John Berger (British Library 7-11 July 2023)

From hand to heart the lines lead, and this is the case
With John Berger; every word chosen, a spectacular act
Of still life. As if his father’s face, fruit, or the workers’ toil
Were one image in which the writer’s art and decision
Had the self-same curvature of a wife.

That line carries on in Tina Grace’s new project.
Surrender: Ways of Hearing John Berger is a film/sound
Installation and tour, through which a strong female gaze
Groups to re-imagine his vision, seeding new work;
Female farmers ploughing Berger’s Pig Earth for the pure.

For purity is what Berger sought from his early days
As a critic. Never content with time’s standard, or any
And all status quos, he was an Art-Anarchist, calling
For change: a Marx brother, whose ways with words
Was not Groucho’s, or Karl’s for that matter,

But one as sharp as stones seeking Angels in order
To ground false halos. The later novelist fused Politics
With Art’s purpose. From A Painter of Our Time to Success
And Failure Of Picasso, Corker’s Freedom to G, winner
Of the third Booker prize, which Berger’s Black Panther

Sharing stance quickly sifted to show how the slavery
In that sugar firm soured even expression’s right
To feel free. He was a man of principle from the start,
Which at the present time is much needed, and Grace,
As with her name seeks to honour all that he was, felt

And saw. In producing this film, a composite of sound,
Soul and image, as we hear phone-fed excerpts of Berger,
Keisha Thompson and Laura Barton’s contemporary
Chorale, as well as that of Michael, his brother,
Reading in almost the same voice, John’s Seventh

And A Fortunate Man paths as passage, while each
Special image gracefully admits open doors.
Not only into his brother’s books, but into the world
His work fashions. From mountain to forest,
Stoke Newington to the Alps, Berger’s voice is a sea

And the film’s sensual pace feels like swimming
It is this slow submersion that Tina Grace seeks,
As a new generations of bathers are invited to ride
John’s soft r’s as ripples towards the summit of what
A poem cites as ‘the earth’s purple scalp.’

The outreach and contact beyond the elitist view
Is her mission; a divine form of travel from a generation
Before to the next. In which a reclaimed writer’s work
Becomes a prized baton, passed to the people,
Just as Berger did to reflect on the soul’s tenancy

And of what the eye and ear do to language
‘What do we in our single beds know of poetry?’
He asks in one poem. While in another, his hands
Cross a forest to seek his partner’s breasts; thought
As sex. And yet this 45 minute piece encompasses

So much more than love’s landscape, as does
Anna Phoebe’s cloud-coloured music and Grace
And Tom Colvin as Laqualia’s sainted song. Voice,
Violin and swathes of immaculate synth soothe
Mist’s myth that the filmed footage enhances.

The assorted photographers, musicians and film-makers,
Tierney Walker, Marcella Haddad, Jillian Edelstein,
Ian Burdge, Milad Yousiffi, and Louai Alhenawi among
Others honour Geoff Bird’s sound design, like a poem
In which a rhyme strives to belong. Surrender is a truly

Collaborative piece of art. A currency of intention.
Made to erect and furnish new towers of both understanding
And gain. For the towering intellect that John was
Always sought to commune at eye level, and both Michael
And his son Simon speak of how Berger made everyone
He met feel the same. From peasant to the prized
And this remains the point of the project. It is presented
As a way to be Berger for the time you are in and for his.
To encounter the world as he did. As the sacred line led
To either writing or drawing. Berger could write about

Smoke, cataracts, or Bologna’s Red Tenda. He could write
About women, and indeed the creatives in this special team
Send thought’s kiss. Thompson considers his muse
And the forms of community and commission. Barton casts
Her word wonders like light on a lake Berger stirs.

And meanwhile the drift of Migration’s theme moves
The water into which we are sinking, while sourcing a surface
That a Utopian turn might prefer. One in which we all
Slowly seize new Ways of Seeing and in listening to each
Other and to the world around and within finally feel

The force Berger mixed with paint and ink in his practice.
It is in sitting we travel, so that the heart’s true education
Begins. ‘I have tried to write the truth on trains,’ Berger
States. And as this project tours you will feel it, both
In the reverberations engendered and in the words heard

On the wind. For once you have seen this film and felt
Bird’s 3D sound design swoop around you, you will read
All the stories both imagined and true that solved sins.
For Berger was an angel, of sorts, with his steely gaze
Glaring at you, something unearthly while at the same time

Of the earth. His books should be held on a tilt, as they
Realign vision. Indeed, each one is a window framing
Green’s gold to find worth. And this film captures that.
This installation is an embrace Grace is giving.
By translating Berger’s books into echoes, Surrender

is soothing. ‘The sky’s blue milk’ brimming over the houses
As ‘holes in an arse of stone’ time has spurned.
The hope is that future generations engage and come
‘To the Wedding’ of man, myth and music; for by spending
Time spirits earn Art’s profit and more, the fact that all
Storytellers are prophets, predicting if only the moment.
All the best books become Bibles. Berger’s begat this.
The heart’s book starts after hearing. Art’s adventure
Continues, for when the book closes, the wonder persists.

                                                ‘Pages learn.’

                                                           David Erdos 5/7/23

An immersive audiovisual journey into the words and ideas of a hugely influential art radical:

Surrender – Ways of Hearing John Berger

British Library – Launch 4th July, 7pm-8.30pm, Pigott Theatre. Further shows 7th-11th July, Foyle suite Tickets £pay what you can

‘Surrender – Ways of Hearing John Berger’ is an extraordinary look at John Berger (1926-2017), the author, painter and cultural critic who was and continues to be a hugely influential radical and outspoken voice in art and culture worldwide.  Launching with an exclusive premiere at the British Library, Piggot Theatre on 4th July at 7pm-8.30pm, ‘Surrender’ marks 50 years of both The British Library and Berger’s ground-breaking Booker prize-winning book ‘G’ and BBC TV series and book ‘Ways of Seeing’.

Surrender: Ways of Hearing John Berger is designed to submerge the audience in words, images and sound. The immersive, 3D audiovisual experience is inspired by and featuring John Berger’s immense audio archive at the British Library and features the voices of John and Michael Berger reading from his novels; A Seventh Man (1975), Pig Earth (1979) and A Fortunate Man (1967). 

Surrender aims to portray Berger’s ideas through a female gaze and includes new responses by writer-in-residence, poet, educator and curator Keisha Thompson, and new writing /narration by Bbc Radio 4 writer and broadcaster Laura Barton. With music compositions by respected violinist and composer Anna Phoebe.

Surrender has taken inspiration from some of the most urgent and universal themes of John Berger’s archive. From the perspective of migrant workers living in exile, the refugee crisis, to the importance of community and existing in harmony with nature.

The piece has been created by Executive Producer, performer and composer Tina Grace, to share the legacy of Berger’s ideas with new generations and audiences of communities of all ages and cultural identities.

The launch premiere on 4^th July will include a panel conversation chaired by Gareth Evans (Whitechapel Gallery), featuring Executive Producer Tina Grace, with contributions by Michael Berger and Simon Berger, writer-in-residence Keisha Thompson and composer Anna Phoebe. The 3D audio installation transfers to the Foyle Suite at British Library from July 7-11, please see here for schedule.

Tina Grace said “I have always been hugely inspired and propelled by the ideas of John Berger, so it’s wonderful to bring together this exciting collective of multi-disciplinary creatives across artforms to programme and curate ‘Surrender: Ways of Hearing John Berger’. It has been 50 years since his groundbreaking, radical ideas shook the arts establishment, yet today, very few young people know his name, or his books. In 1972, Berger donated half his Booker prize money to the London chapter of the Black Panthers. The same year, his internationally acclaimed BBC TV series and book ‘Ways of Seeing’ caused huge global controversy when it spoke of the elitism, racism and misogyny within the arts establishment. My aim is for ‘Surrender’ to share John Berger’s legacy across generations with this compelling, immersive journey through his ideas. A reflection of London’s multicultural, multi-generational identity, in an increasingly polarised world, the need to find ways of listening to one another without judgement has never been so relevant.”

Credits: Lead writer Laura Barton. Production by Geoff Bird. 3D audio sound design and mix by Tom Slater for Call and Response. Additional music by Tina Grace and Tom Colvin, aka Laqualia.

Featured musicians:  cellist Ian Burdge/Afghan Rubab; Milad Yousoffi, Syrian Flute; Louai Alhenawi. With Slo-film visuals edited by Tierney Walker@earthwaterfilms. Photographs featured in Slo – film edit from refugee camps in various locations in Europe by Jillian Edelstein.  3D audio sound-scape is mixed by @callandresponse.

Notes to editors:

• Photograph of John Berger by John Christie, background design by Hassan Hajjaj
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• About Laura Barton: Laura Barton (author/journalist) has been a writer for The Guardian since 2000, including The Observer, Nyt. Her publications include Twenty-One-Locks and Sad Songs, published bu Quercus Books.  

• Producer Geoff Bird, is a BBC R4 /podcast producer having won numerous awards for his 100+ broadcast documentaries. Artistic director of Hinterland film festival and Timber Festival.

• Young Manchester-based writer-in-residence Keisha Thompson is a poet, musician and CEO of Contact Theatre, leading on a multitude of projects exploring Race and gender politics. Photo credit Elmi Ali

• Featuring original music-soundscapes by Anna Phoebe violinist, composer and producer, who works on cross-genre solo and collaborative projects. Her most recent albums Sea Souls and Sea Souls (live) have received widespread radio support—including from BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 3, and Scala Radio—and a bespoke show at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room. She was also a guest artist for the 27-date Young Voices tour in January 2023.  @annaphoebe.com. 

• Featuring music by Laqualia, more info here 
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• Executive producer Tina Grace –  singer -songwriter, producer, environmentalist and tree warden. With 20+ years  of collaborations  including  Terry Callier, Fink, Nitin Sawhney and Valgier Sigurdsson. Curating fundraisers for Help Refugees at Royal Albert Hall Elgar Room, and Omeara London. In 2017, she first curated a multi-media tribute to John Berger for the British Library with Berger family members. Pic credit @hassanhajjaj_larache, styling @samson_soboye

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