Tobias Regensburger: Art — Life — Survival – By Christian Schoen

There are personalities throughout art history who are creators not only of their art but also of their everyday life: artists driven by a constant urge to shape or rearrange everything they encounter.

Tobias Regensburger: Art — Life — Survival

By Christian Schoen

 

 

 

There are personalities throughout art history who are creators not only of their art but also of their everyday life: artists driven by a constant urge to shape or rearrange everything they encounter. This means that they are continuously creative. Creativity determines their thought and is an existential need they harbor. The work of these people is not driven by a specific "art want" oriented to the art market. Art is a necessity and a matter of course. The decision as to whether and when a work is put onto the art market often lies far from its actual creation. In such rare cases where art and life are so closely woven together, peaks and crises often become impregnated into the work.

Without a doubt this description applies to Tobias Regensburger. He is a creative person who uses the most diverse materials for his sometimes very extravagant objects. Despite having trained as a sculptor he does not work with traditional materials. He uses objects trouv�s from everyday life, combined with materials from DIY stores or things that have accumulated. The smallest of details are concretized witnesses of the living creation process; in the "Survival" works they come to light particularly clearly. Even very complex works such as "Auto" or "Camp" gain a liberating but also deceptive lightness through the seemingly playful creation process.

Tobias Regensburger’s objects and models initially appear as fantastic designs whose aesthetics sway between science fiction and trash. It could be all about props and film design, and it is this association that reveals the influence of cinema and television from which neither the artist nor the observer can free themselves. Thus the color-intensive "Survival Suit" is reminiscent of the outfit of a motorcyclist rather than the clothing of a hero from a science fiction film. The suit, just like the objects that go with it, is clearly meant to protect the person, to secure the person’s survival. Where and in which world — this remains to be seen. The "Survival Car" is an object the size of a real car but made from an entirely unclear abundance of objects. On the one hand there is something futuristic and brutal about it (like the vehicle from the Mad Max films of the 1980s); on the other it comes across rather like a placebo car for the underprivileged. The "Survival Car" is a (deceptive) image of a car that bears the desire for freedom and independence. This is all intensified again when Regensburger presents the motor home that, while real and drivable, is a metaphorical detail of the entire installation of "Camp". The motor home stands as a synonym for independence that is lived. Free from rent bills and completely unbound, this is where a free life can be lived, which most people only do when on holiday. Just like the "Car", it symbolizes the dream of freedom whilst suggesting the feeling of security offered by what is familiar.

Regensburger uses "Camp" to take the diverse possibilities for movement or escape to an extreme. At the center of the work stands a real-life sized helicopter. The helicopter introduces the idea of a further dimension (that of air) applying itself to past forms; the motor home and the car can both be stowed away under the helicopter. Around the helicopter a camp is set up, in actuality and metaphorically. But even the "Camp" is ambivalent (the title and the appearance correspond to each other): "Camp" can refer to holiday and leisure on the one hand; on the other hand it has a military connotation, serving as a "prisoner camp" as well as a base for the defense or seizing of territory. This ambiguity intensifies with the helicopter: a metaphor interpreted as threat or salvation, as is often present in cinema films (such as the starting sequence of "Apocalypse Now" by Francis Ford Coppola or the final sequence of Tom Tykwer’s "Heaven"). The "Camp" is the living space of the "Survival Human". It is significant that the camp is set up at a place that itself is in a state of transition. Traces of homes that have disappeared are still clearly visible and new living spaces will soon arise. The temporary location of the camp emphasizes a place of transformation.

The objects of the "Survival" series are images that feed from contemporary and personal thoughts on freedom and escapism. Available means of movement signify "freedom" in our age of virtually unlimited travel opportunities. Being able to choose between diverse means of movement denotes luxury. At the same time the diversity of possibilities signifies an exaggerated desire to escape from everyday life. For a vagrant who puts together his "image" of a car using found objects, the structure expresses a desire for freedom and status — a desire that will remain a desire. For the vagrant it also signifies the possibility to break out of one world in order to enter a new one. Even this dream remains a dream. A vague form of existential insecurity is inherent in the works — and this is not just played or put on. It is personally felt. In the creative process Tobias Regensburger seeks possibilities for escape. It is significant that, just as in earlier works, he starts out from the body — from his own body. This aspect is illustrated when one observes the transformation of his own favorite clothes for the "Survival Suit": jeans and a denim jacket. The appearance of the suit with the helmet and shoes may be reminiscent of futuristic motorcyclist wear, but it is still a masquerade. It appears as a fantasy costume in which the ego can hide itself. When people went to baroque masked balls they transformed themselves into other identities for the duration of the party; the "Suit" can therefore guarantee protection in that it helps to conceal the identity of its owner. The suit’s wearer is not only physically protected but acts anonymously or with a new identity — an identity that may well help the wearer find a new strength that is not part of his/her normal human identity. With the costume the person, an average citizen in everyday life, slips into a new identity that grants superhuman powers. The "Survival Suit" is not only a supposed accessory for the pilot of a "helicopter" in the sense of functional works clothing but expresses in itself — as an image — the desire to escape from one’s own body. The series of "Survival" works thus has its origin in the body to which it finally returns.