Programme Details

"I can't tell you what art does and how it does it, but I know that art has often judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past has suffered, so that it has never been forgotten." John Berger

John Berger has been described as genius invisible. It's no exaggeration to say his unique thinking radicalised British culture in the 20th century. Exemplary of this was Ways of Seeing - the book and accompanying television series made in the 1970s - which revolutionised the way we look at painting and the history of art. Its influence is felt to this day. He is clearly one of the most internationally influential writers of the last 50 years - with novels, screenplays and criticism committed to exploring tirelessly the relationships between culture and politics, experience and expression, the individual and society. Novels such as G, To the Wedding and his famous trilogy exploring peasantry - Into Their Labours - show a humanity and breadth of vision which is peculiarly un-English.

He has also had profound collaborations with some of the leading figures in their fields - the theatre director Simon McBurney, the photographer Jean Mohr and the composer Gavin Bryars - and is constantly supportive and encouraging of new talent and new ways of engaging with the world through writing, film, music and all the arts.

This April a month long season celebrating the work of this exceptional artist and thinker opens in London. On the eve of it, Philip Dodd journeys to Paris to discover Here is Where We Meet - the title of the season as well as of the accompanying collection of linked essays and stories about John Berger's encounters and journeys with people across Europe. These encounters include - appropriately enough for Easter Monday - encounters both with the living and the dead.

In this special 45 minute extended interview for Radio 3's Night Waves, John Berger talks to Phillip Dodd about his passion for independent thought; his enduring yet seemingly contradictory engagement with the enduring mystery of great art as well as the lived experienced of the oppressed. How can he reconcile his obsession with the transcendent and immaterial with his commitment to the real and material? And why and how does he still believe that art is the moral centre of our world?

Night Waves, at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3


Presenter: Philip Dodd
Producer: Ariane Koek



Additional information:
1) John Berger: Here Is Where We Meet - a season celebrating John Berger's
work in all media - runs in venues across London from 11 April to 18 May. Please visit www.johnberger.org for full information.
2) Here is Where We Meet - the book - is published by Bloomsbury