Portals For Fluid Distortion

Interview with the artist Jürgen Baumann

Engaging in a conversation with the artist allows one to almost physically access a realm between the fantastic and the grotesque. The artist combines and intertwines refined techniques with a distinctly theatrical flair, bringing to life worlds that elude simple definitions. The forms are fluid yet grotesque, concrete yet almost intangible. Through multiple mediums, the artist consistently focuses on states of transition and the indefinable.

Looking at your current artistic figure, which of your past experiences or education do you think had the greatest impact on your creative perspective?

In 2018 I was lucky to get granted a half year residency in Cairo, Egypt, a beast of a city with around 20 million people. Despite the load of people, I actually got quite lonely. I chose to go further down that rabbit hole and dug myself even more in, kind of curious how far I could go, pushing myself into some weird solitary corner. I had my studio in a bungalow within a walled area on a beautiful, tiny island on the Nile River, all within this huge city. That place, its many different engulfments, my own „borders“, they got important to me and made me reflect the socio-political conventions that I’m confronted with back home. That and the solitary experience keep coming up as an influence on my work. So, the ‚house‘ on one hand simply became important as a metaphor for our minds, but furthermore, I think of the house and the physical moving within it, through its rooms, corridors, windows and doors, as an actual act of thinking. As thinking means to connect spaces, very much like moving between rooms. Thus, architecture, object arrangements, composition, they become ideas, a consciousness itself, shaped by us, shaping us. The inner house and its infinite pathways and thresholds become never-ending. In its paradoxical boundlessness it becomes an uncanny place to discover. This idea repeats on numerous different levels of zoom; the arrangement of objects on a coffee table, a drawing, within an exhibition space, within a city and so on. Consequently, I develop stories tapping into and out of these ideas, with trickster figures, as an embodiment of chaos, rites of passage, beings of the threshold, and the Unheimlichkeit, the uncanny. The german word unheimlich showing its root of the heim (home), as something that is close to us, yet slightly shifted. A world that is neither here nor there.

“Through the transformation and the irritation that comes afterwards, we are somehow more captured and more alert, more sensitive towards the object and become more aware of its external links.”

Through a play of fluidity and sinuosity, your works intertwine different worlds. Where do these influences come from, and what atmosphere do you aim to capture?

Aesthetic influences come from various sources. From comics, Moebius, the Ren & Stimpy show, movies like „the thing“, but also just a good hike through nature. Things that have been made by hand, with flaws and roughness, with a strong materiality. Patinated, grippy, slimy stuff, pimples and rashes. I also enjoy gothic architecture and Jugendstil. For the gothic cathedrals I’m especially intrigued — apart from all the amazing grotesque stuff — by the idea of making a building that is trying to be as open as possible. In other words, to contain without constraining. For the Jugendstil, I’m not so much into the brass stuff, but rather the curved forms that so easily become a transmission of force. As opposed to the perfectionist approach of the art nouveau I also have a soft spot for somehow failed architecture, or failed formalistic output. In a way that one can see the original idea behind a design choice, for example a color combination, or ornamental decoration, choice of materials and so on. But it’s clearly failing. Like it’s trying to mimic something, but clearly failing. I find that in that moment there starts something beautiful. It’s like in Baudrillard’s world of Simulacra. Things get detached and develop a new life. Using techniques like casting and deep-drawing quite often, I realised that the copy or the imprint has a more realistic impact on me, than the „originals“. Through the transformation and the irritation that comes afterwards, we are somehow more captured and more alert, more sensitive towards the object and become more aware of its external links.

“…I guess it’s quite a fluid process…”

Your art spans different materials and techniques. Can you discuss the different creative approach between drawings, installations, and sculptures? Which medium allows you to best express your aesthetics?

A bit like the thing from the movie, an eclectic assembly of different bodies, I like to think of it like that. The stories I’m weaving have different approaches within an exhibition. I choose the techniques according to the point of view of a certain element of the story. There is narrative elements, rhetoric pieces, but als prop-like works, that come from an envisioned story and have the purpose of transporting you to that world. Sometimes a drawing becomes a prop in the way, that it might tell a story from within a story.
Then there is also location differences. I draw at home, whereas most of the sculptural work happens in the studio located on the city’s periphery. Most of the time I have a clear visual and conceptual idea in my writings, sketches and in my head. When I start working, I like to set certain parameters that allow me to work with and against them. A bit like a patch with vegetables and weed growing all over. By writing for myself, working here and there, ideas start to mix and sometimes I end up with different mediums from what I had imagined. I guess it’s quite a fluid process. Sometimes I’m also just utterly bored by everything around me and then the mind is open for something new, that wants to be explored. May that be a new technique, a new material, or just playing around. I guess boredom and curiosity are big drivers in my work ethics. By reflecting upon those experiments, maybe something develops, maybe not. In the end I find it important to have different art works shown together, to be able to make connections in between them. The single works function as entry points.

Regarding the contemporary art scene, do you believe there are still rigid categorisations or creative taboos? What additional values do you find in the fusion of different visual forms?

I guess there is always trends, certain things that work better in this time than another and vice versa. But I think that on a grand scale, there is no taboos, but only art styles that are off the grid. Maybe due to fashion, trends, but they might shine in a different time and place. Thinking of contemporary art as a mirror of contemporary society, I would argue that there is some polarising or even divisive art out there. In conclusion, a fusion of different visual forms I would also see as the visualisation of a grotesque body and therefore representation of today’s society, at least how I perceive it.

Tell us about a particular work or exhibition that you are particularly connected to or consider the ultimate expression of your aesthetics.

As soon as an exhibition opens, I feel like it’s done and I’m eager to conquer new realms. In hindsight, though, there is works, that feel closer than others. The first Portalbekrönungen (portal crownings) I did, still have that effect on me. They were meant to frame and claim space, without doing so in an aggressive way, without being an obstacle. Only by being there, they indicate a specific space, and they open up a doorway that leads into different worlds. For those works I found my own technique of deep-drawing, which felt like a new medium to work with. The transparency of those works still does the job for me. When looking at those crownings or portals, the material partially reflects what is behind you and distorts what is ahead of you. But they suck to be photographed.

Do you already have your next project in mind, or are you currently working on something specific?

I’m constantly working on multiple stuff at the same time. They all live within the same temporal cosmos and hopefully get shown as an exhibition at some point. Usually I work on imaginary solo shows (lol) that I have in my mind and that I plan according to either real exhibition spaces or generic spaces. I find this way of imagining and visualising to help me focus. Sometimes, those shows come to life, if I get an opportunity at the right time, that’s always great. And sometimes I just made a bunch of works that never get out into the public. Right now I’m trying to get my head around a story/idea/body of work, that draws on those cat burglar stories. The tricksters that so smoothly enter and leave spaces of privacy. It’s pretty camp and a fun world to explore.

Portals For Fluid Distortion

Credits:

Artist: Jürgen Baumann / @juergen_baumann
Interview: Annalisa Fabbrucci / @annalisa_fabbrucci
Editor: Maria Abramenko  / @mariabramenko

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