Marie José Burki’s work centres on the analysis of perception, narrative construction, and the instability of visual meaning.

Using video and photography, she investigates how images shape our understanding of reality while simultaneously revealing their own constructed nature. Her works often focus on seemingly ordinary situations — everyday gestures, pauses, or social interactions — yet these scenes are deliberately staged or structured in ways that unsettle straightforward interpretation.

A key aspect of her practice is the interplay between image, sound, and temporality. Carefully composed soundtracks, narrative fragments, or subtle disruptions in rhythm introduce ambiguity and encourage viewers to question what they see. Rather than presenting explicit stories, Burki frequently constructs open narrative frameworks in which meaning emerges through duration, repetition, and attention to minor details.

Her restrained visual language emphasises observation over spectacle. Through minimal compositional strategies, she foregrounds processes of looking, memory, and interpretation, prompting reflection on how identities, social relations, and collective perceptions are mediated through images. The viewer is thus positioned in an ambivalent role — simultaneously observer, participant, and interpreter within the visual situation.

Overall, Burki’s work can be understood as a sustained inquiry into how images organise experience: how they suggest narratives, construct reality effects, and expose the subtle mechanisms through which contemporary visual culture shapes perception.