EinE Pinot
GRiGio, BittE
By Bernadette Corporation
Sternberg Press, $24.95/€19 (paperback)
Reviewing the Bernadette Corporation’s latest
work (a ‘screenplay’ titled Eine Pinot Grigio,
Bitte) presents a paradox: it is almost impossible
to review the group’s output without having an
understanding of who they are, and yet their work
– indeed their entire manifesto – is predicated
upon negation of the notion of identity.
Bernadette Corporation, a New York- and
Paris-based collective, came into being in the
early 1990s. After assuming a corporate moniker,
The ‘story’ follows two actors as they
this clandestine and ever-metamorphosing
attempt to make a film, while zombies wreak
group began an assault on nearly all aspects of
havoc at various destinations across the globe.
cultural production. Like a brand specialising in
But the real meat is found in the introduction
‘underground’ artistic production, BC diversified
and postscript memoranda, where Bernadette
into fashion, filmmaking and publishing. They
Corporation respectively explain their motivation
take the idea that identity can be usurped
for writing Eine Pinot Grigio, Bitte and spell out
and marketed, and market it themselves as
their aims as filmmakers. But who ‘they’ are in this
a corporation – guise and real thing rolled
instance has changed. What initially looks like a
confusingly into one. The very fact that they
comprehensive list of Bernadette Corporation’s
are successful as a fake underground enterprise
aims is confounded when you read that it is in
(their fashion designs were featured in Purple and
fact the manifesto of a group called Pedestrian
Harper’s Bazaar; Chloë Sevigny appeared in one
Cinema (2005–7), a ‘temporary underground film
of their films) only adds to the confusion about
studio operated by Bernadette Corporation’.
who they are and what they stand for.
Herein lies the problem with Bernadette
A further paradox is that the screenplay
Corporation: just when you think you’ve got
they have written – or not written, as Eine Pinot
a hold on them, they wriggle away – much like
Grigio, Bitte is supposedly the outcome of
the ephemeral Pedestrian Cinema, consigned to
screenplay formatting software – bears some
an existence (probably imaginary) of only two
recognisable hallmarks of BC’s manifesto. Much
years. But in and among the many ironies that
of the story deals with the juxtaposition of
thrive in their hall-of-mirrors output, Bernadette
singular identity with communalised identity, a
Corporation show that artists can indeed escape
theme explored in previous BC-published works,
corporatisation as long as they keep changing
including multi-authored novel Reena Spaulings
their presentable face. Of course, this serial
(Semiotext(e), 2004) and the film Get Rid of
mask-wearing runs the risk of being corporatised
Yourself (2001).
itself, but at least it’s them calling the shots. If
Bernadette Corporation are anything, it is sheep
in wolves’ clothing, artists taking cover in the last
By Susan Finlay
refuge – which is, ironically, the corporate matrix.
Five Lines in the Sand, £16.99 (hardcover) Laura Allsop
JAN_books.indd.indd 133 4/12/07 15:13:20
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