He settled in Rosario with a municipal job. The conservative revolution of 1930 launched in Argentina the "infamous decade". These were years of crisis and misery. Berni adhered to the Communist Party.

He performed El botón y el tornillo, Sueño de una noche de verano a orillas del lago Garda, Objetos en la ciudad, Objetos en el espacio, Susana y el viejo, Tranquilidad de los barrios aristocráticos and La guerra acecha en cada esquina. These last three are experiences where he combined painting and collage, whose antecedent could be found in La Torre Eiffel en la Pampa, tempera and collage of 1930. Erotic references and an atmosphere of oneiric violence transpire from all these works. The social reality present in the country would become more explicit in later works.