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Alex Bernatzky
Journalism
Photography

Biography

I refuse to be pigeonholed. I am a multihyphenate. One part transdisciplinary designer, one part artist, one part visual storyteller, one part academic, and several parts insatiably curious. Currently based in Berlin, I am a Johannesburg-born creative with an enduring love affair with cities; The soul encased in the concrete and asphalt; the heartbeat provided by the thrum of daily life. My mantra is: be BEFOK... Not Gefok. Befok: Afrikaans slang means really cool, crazy, stupid or a combination of all of the above. Gefok: fucked up. BEFOK exists in a contested space. Like the language, it stems from BEFOK is unmoored. Something that belongs neither in Africa where it was born nor in Europe where it finds its roots. Current explorations: speculative cultural futures as humanity evolves and adapts — especially in response to migration and climate change; The concept of truth and its amorphous nature; avenues for the hybridisation of print and digital media.

Skills

Roles

  • Mastery
  • Advanced
  • Basic
  • Basic

Technical Skills

  • Advanced

Other Skills

  • Mastery

Work Experience

2012 – Present day

freelance designer and journalist (Freelance)

Befok.Space (World wide)
Embodying that liminal space where madness meets genius. Creating creative problems to often mundane solutions. Embracing the cracks and revealing the beauty in honest imperfections.

Education

2016 – 2017

Msc Design Research

Bauhaus Dessau

Design Research

Thesis: Framing Memory: The discursive role of museum design in the conception of heritage in post-apartheid South Africa.

2010 – 2013

Bjourn.

Rhodes University

Journalism and media studies

a 4-year bachelor of journalism and media studies with an additional major in political philosophy and a journalism specialism in communication design