Roland Berger

Roland Berger’s Stele III presents an upright, archaic-looking basalt block in which the rough outer skin and a softly polished core form a harmonious balance.

On the front, a deeply hollowed, matte-polished recess opens, its soft contour recalling water-smoothed forms over long periods of time. The back narrows into an organically curved channel, creating the impression that the stone’s interior has been liquefied or washed out. In profile, the contrast between the grainy outer shell and the softly modelled core becomes clearly visible.

In this way, Berger sharpens our perception of material and time: rough fracture surfaces meet gently reflective inner forms; with every step of the viewer, light and shadow shift— a static-kinetic tension that produces movement in stillness. Stylistically, Stele III appears like a stele from a foreign culture and, at the same time, a contemporary biomorphic abstraction: between natural trace (erosion, pressure, time) and deliberate artistic intervention.

As a result, the work tips subtly into the surreal: the “liquefied” core seems to work against the solid mantle. Stillness and movement, crust and core, natural trace and intervention hold each other in balance— a compact form that makes movement tangible without mechanics.