Stefan Guggisberg - Take-Over
18 Nov 2011 - 28 Jan 2012
PARROTTA CONTEMPORARY ART STUTTGART
STEFAN GUGGISBERG
TAKE-OVER
After having explored various experiments in sciences to approach substantiality through research questions and their results, the quantum physicist Hans-Peter Dürr (born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1929) found this can only be resolved in the form of analogies. In the conclusion of his own intensive work as a natural scientist, Dürr states that „the basic reality bears more analogies with the unfathomable, vivid spirit than with the tangible substantial matter we are familiar with." His thinking beyond series of experiments and verifiability to the point of the non-tangible of the spirit show a visual equivalent in Stefan Guggisberg’s works. Guggisberg’s motifs defy a spatial and temporal determinability – leading the viewer towards a visual area where the definable and established forms have dissolved in order to adopt a new inner order. This way, Stefan Guggisberg creates a reality on paper gaining validity through the gradual resolution of the figure and the thus developed coloured areas and waves which opens a resonance field for the spirit in particular. Guggisberg himself talks about a self-contained cosmos of images created by way of “conducting” forces and motions. By “conducting” he refers to the very particular genesis of works bearing an intrinsic processual quality in various respects: he covers the sheet of paper with oil paint to then create the actual motif of the picture by obliterating the paint he applied beforehand.
An erasing element draws – and areas, at times rather dominant, at other times rather delicate, remain. Guggisberg thus expands from a coated superficial area into a subsurface which can also be regarded as such with regards to its content: uncovering the exterior exposes what lies within. According to Stefan Guggisberg, the basis for this working process is not a concept of motifs but an anticipation. As the drawer’s hand works as a transmitter for an inner motion, the body of the viewer becomes a receiver of an oscillation caused by the structure of colours and drawings. Looking at these pictures – especially the big sheets – the viewer is almost physically set in motion. Within the oscillating monochrome and multi-coloured layers of drawings, the viewer’s gaze starts to drift. However, there is no need to search for the meaning of motifs. It is in fact the experience of a non-existing end point and thus of maximum openness and wideness. Stefan Guggisberg’s pictures present an invitation to gain notional access. If the viewers take this visual path they are enabled to anticipating a different new clarity.
Text: Elisa Tamaschke, 2011.
Stefan Guggisberg, born 1980 in Thun/Switzerland, since 2010 master class of Neo Rauch, HGB Leipzig/Germany.
STEFAN GUGGISBERG
TAKE-OVER
After having explored various experiments in sciences to approach substantiality through research questions and their results, the quantum physicist Hans-Peter Dürr (born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1929) found this can only be resolved in the form of analogies. In the conclusion of his own intensive work as a natural scientist, Dürr states that „the basic reality bears more analogies with the unfathomable, vivid spirit than with the tangible substantial matter we are familiar with." His thinking beyond series of experiments and verifiability to the point of the non-tangible of the spirit show a visual equivalent in Stefan Guggisberg’s works. Guggisberg’s motifs defy a spatial and temporal determinability – leading the viewer towards a visual area where the definable and established forms have dissolved in order to adopt a new inner order. This way, Stefan Guggisberg creates a reality on paper gaining validity through the gradual resolution of the figure and the thus developed coloured areas and waves which opens a resonance field for the spirit in particular. Guggisberg himself talks about a self-contained cosmos of images created by way of “conducting” forces and motions. By “conducting” he refers to the very particular genesis of works bearing an intrinsic processual quality in various respects: he covers the sheet of paper with oil paint to then create the actual motif of the picture by obliterating the paint he applied beforehand.
An erasing element draws – and areas, at times rather dominant, at other times rather delicate, remain. Guggisberg thus expands from a coated superficial area into a subsurface which can also be regarded as such with regards to its content: uncovering the exterior exposes what lies within. According to Stefan Guggisberg, the basis for this working process is not a concept of motifs but an anticipation. As the drawer’s hand works as a transmitter for an inner motion, the body of the viewer becomes a receiver of an oscillation caused by the structure of colours and drawings. Looking at these pictures – especially the big sheets – the viewer is almost physically set in motion. Within the oscillating monochrome and multi-coloured layers of drawings, the viewer’s gaze starts to drift. However, there is no need to search for the meaning of motifs. It is in fact the experience of a non-existing end point and thus of maximum openness and wideness. Stefan Guggisberg’s pictures present an invitation to gain notional access. If the viewers take this visual path they are enabled to anticipating a different new clarity.
Text: Elisa Tamaschke, 2011.
Stefan Guggisberg, born 1980 in Thun/Switzerland, since 2010 master class of Neo Rauch, HGB Leipzig/Germany.