M HKA Ensembles

° 1966

Works in Berlin (DE), lives in Frankfurt (DE), born in Esslingen am Neckar (DE).

The multidisciplinary German artist Tobias Rehberger (b. 1966) reinterprets spaces – both museum and public spaces – by means of geometric objects, recurring colour patterns and planes of shadow and light. His conceptual oeuvre is a combination of architecture, design and video art.  Using recurring geometric motifs and optical illusions, he not only decorates buildings and interiors, but also objects, wall papers and design furniture. Through his constant exploration of the boundary between the public and the private space – primarily by emphasising it – the artist shows the impact of a personal intervention. Or the other way around: he shows how an artistic addition can become public property. In the same way, he also seeks to erase the boundaries of authorship and copyright. Rehberger regards all culture as public property, and uses it to undermine its own so-called specificity. Its use becomes pointless, but the shape of the object acquires an artistic autonomy that refers to existing objects. The play of shadow and light around the object is created by means of film images that are projected on the wall. The reflection of the moving images brings together the formal and the artificial in a consistent formal language.

Text: Hans Willemse
Translations: Michael Meert