2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition

On Touching
Still from single-channel video projection
13 min 38 sec
2026

On Touching
Image of performance remains during filming
Single-channel video projection
13 min 38 sec
2026

Exfoliation
Detail shot
Dried liquid latex
Dimensions variable
2026

Exfoliation
Image from installation process
Dried liquid latex
Dimensions variable
2026

In the thesis exhibition Emīlija presents two works: a video piece “On Touching”, and an installation “Exfoliation”. In these works, touch is considered a system of transformational forces. A touch can be soft, warm, liquid-like, but it can also become firm, sticky, overwhelming, painful. A touch can linger; it can settle into a second skin. Life is created through touch; when we lose someone, we say we lose touch.

During dance training, a dancer’s body feels touch deeply in various ways – the body meets the architecture of the space through being in contact with the floor, the walls, the air, or another dancer’s body. When entering the realm of visual arts, touching can become that of the eye – how does the body look and what is it doing? The tactile experience of the body is harder to translate, seeing becomes a form of touching.

Set in a traditional fine arts figure painting environment, “On Touching” explores a state in between various modes of touching whilst the body is covered in rapidly solidifying liquid latex, prompting considerations of perception of the female body in the context of Western art history and beyond.

In the installation “Exfoliation” the white liquid latex is painted on the wall and at first could seemingly appear as a layer of white paint. Overtime it dries and transforms into the skin of the wall, which is then peeled off by the artist to duplicate the bodily movement in the video. The work invites the viewer to consider the term ‘’exfoliation’’, usually associated with the body, in the context of architecture where embodied actions expand and interact with institutional and societal structures.

Emīlija Berga (she/her, born 1999) is an interdisciplinary artist and performer from Riga, Latvia, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. With a background in contemporary dance choreography, she centers embodied ways of making in her visual arts practice. Materials, sites, sounds, and narratives interact with the body in various media from live performances to videos and installations. In 2021 she received a BA in Contemporary Dance Art from Latvian Academy of Culture and is currently doing her MFA in Fine Arts in Parsons School of Design, NY. After her BA, she worked as a contemporary dancer in collaboration with Latvian and international choreographers. In New York she has exhibited her work in group exhibitions including ”Common Ground’’, 25 East Gallery, and ‘’Finding Shape in Absence’’, 39 W 13th Street. She continues to work as a performer, recently taking part in Regina José Galindo’s performance ”La fuerza de la izquierda (The Strength of the Left)”.