Statement | Tobias Zehntner

Statement
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Science and art are the modern intellectual descendants of magic. This quote by Robert Shapley (1985) brings together my most important interests. I have a fascination for science, nature and phenomena and an insatiable curiosity for the mysterious worlds outside our heads. Although I might want to find explanations for an experience, I find myself more often marveling at its beauty. Art gives me the possibility to cherish the magic of the world we live in.

A recurring focus of my work is movement, in time as much as in space, where it often catches my interest when observing mundane and urban environments. The movement can be of the object itself or in relation to the viewer, of human or mechanical nature. The architectural space it is mapped within is always of importance to my considerations. In my attempts to control the movement, whether it be observed and later arranged or created for its own purpose, my affection for choreography becomes clear.

However, the experience itself seems to make up an ever-greater part of my work. I have a certain liability to illusion and deception in order to show my attraction to phenomena, a simple gesture leading the viewer to new ways of seeing. It feels like presenting a magic trick, but never without revealing how it works. That the phenomenon keeps its magic nonetheless is part of that beauty I am so fascinated of.

My work is strongly influenced by my previous education. For years I worked with photography, which is reflected in my passion for observation and my curiosity for the visual in general. The absence of sound in a large part of my work is another hint of my long interest in the medium. My vocational education in architecture causes me to define the work in relation to its surrounding space. The architectural plays a role in most of my work: sometimes in its content, at others in its form. In the case of room installations it becomes both. It often reveals my preferences for modernist aesthetics and compositions.

The media I work with spans from video to objects, from sculpture to room installations. While some works utilize everyday scenes as material, others concentrate on more fundamental elements like water and light. The results are minimalist studies of the poetic, at times forming immersive environments where the experience of the viewer is essential. They are always created to share my fascinations and driven by my urge to wonder.