Veronika Burger’s works often move at the interface of visual art, performance, video and socio-political research.

In videos, she documented the process of making the red carnations for 1 May (Labour Day) by women* who had worked voluntarily for the Wiener Kinderfreunde for decades. Volunteers from Kinderfreunde 2nd, 6th/7th, 18th and 22th districts performed for their camera and together created an archive of gestures of labour.

The red carnation symbol produced in the work process was omitted for the filming, however, and the image focuses solely on the movement – the choreography of the hands or gestures, processes – that are necessary to produce the red carnation. The reduction of the image to the movement alone allows the body knowledge to come to the fore, which has accumulated for decades through hundreds of paper flowers in the hands.

Against the background of women*’s invisible work, Veronika Burger researched how gestures of labour are inscribed in the female body. The body as archive itself becomes a performance stage: a cross-generational archive of gestures.

Which work is seen? Which remains unseen? Which work is noticed, which is not? How is work inscribed in our bodies? Which work gestures have we inherited in our bodies over generations? Which movements, works are seemingly (un)visibly inscribed in our bodies?

Text by Arno Rabl