John Berger: Do You Know What I Watch?

A choral reading by Katya and Yves Berger, following animal traces in John Berger’s work.

This choral reading from his writings on animals is devised by Katya Berger-Andreadakis and read by two of John’s children Katya and Yves. It is a family contribution to the centenary year of John Berger’s birth.

There is hardly any book of John Berger’s that doesn’t include a few pages about animals. Both as a writer and as a visual artist, some of his most vivid insights concern non-human living things, ranging from mushrooms to eels, from insects to hounds. His lifelong reflection on the relationship between man and nature led him to listen carefully, but without an ounce of anthropomorphism, to the voices of countless speechless creatures – that finally extended all the way to clouds or biological cells.

A free, photographic display drawn from John Berger archive, held at the British Library, may be seen during normal building opening hours.

This event is part of Green Libraries Week.

In association with Katya and Yves Berger.

Solo or in collaboration, he published more than 30 titles including the Booker Prize winning novel G and the bestselling Ways of Seeing. He lived and worked for many years in Quincy, a small French peasant community, the setting for his trilogy Into their Labours. On hundred years since his birth, painters, cineastes, writers, dancers, curators have been and are still inspired by his work.