About John Berger: From Life
In 2010 John Berger gave his archive to British Library: a kind of homecoming to the city of his birth, after a life lived mostly in self-imposed exile in Switzerland and France.
Tom Overton got to know Berger as he catalogued this archive, and exchanges between them were a journey of discovery and rediscovery. Now, in an extraordinary new book, Overton draws on this experience and a vast and previously unseen trove of material to explore John Berger's life and work one hundred years after his birth.
There were so many different subjects to Berger’s work; so many precisely chosen forms. He reimagined the relationship between art and technology; charted the disappearance of peasants and documented migrant labour; explored with huge compassion the AIDS crisis; was trenchantly opposed to the new world order that emerged in the 1990s and the War on Terror and was passionately committed to the Palestinian cause.
Join us at this event to launch John Berger: From Life where Tom Overton talks to Gareth Evans about the continued importance of a figure who always focused on the creating and recreating of communities past and present. At the centre of this book, above all, is the idea that John Berger wants our company, and we need his.
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Tom Overton
Tom Overton is a writer and literary archivist.
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After cataloguing John Berger’s archive at the British Library, Tom Overton spent 15 years following its traces from Moscow to Texas, from the Alps to Istanbul. He worked with Berger on editing Portraits: John Berger on Artists and Landscapes: John Berger on Art, with Matthew Harle on The Underground Sea: John Berger on Miners and the Miners’ Strike, and with Katya Berger on a forthcoming edition of Berger’s letters. He’s written for The Guardian, New Statesman, frieze, and London Review of Books and Paris Review blogs, works as the Archive Curator of the Barbican Centre, and lives in Sheffield.
Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans is a writer, editor, curator, event producer and host. He hosts the LRB Screen Series at The Garden Cinema.
Venue and bar opening times
This event will take place in the British Library Knowledge Centre and is also available to watch online. Tickets may be booked to attend in person, or to watch online.
If you are attending in person, please note that the Knowledge Centre and the bar will be open from 18.00.
Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event. If you have specific access requirements please email customer@bl.uk
Attending the event online
If you book an online ticket, you will receive the viewing link on the morning of the event. You can either watch the event live or during the next 14 days on catch up.
Concessions
There are a range of concessions available. These include discounts for British Library Members, Young Persons (16 – 25s), and visitors on Universal/Pension Credit and free entry for carers.
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