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Tobias Kaspar at Kunsthalle Bern

Soloshow «Independence», September 22 until December 2, 2018

Artists

Tobias Kaspar

Institution

Kunsthalle Bern

Location

Bern

Download

Press release (PDF)

Website

kunsthalle-bern.ch

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Hydra Life, 2013» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition Title: "Tobias Kaspar at Kunsthalle Bern"

Subtitle: "Soloshow «Independence»"

Under the term “autonomy”, independence in art long meant freedom of artistic creation independent of market or government influences. Especially in the second half of the twentieth century, artists served as a projection surface for a life freed from constraints that promised relative independence from socioeconomic conditions. Yet this unrealistic idea of artists having the freedom you, as a civic subject, do not dare to take has meanwhile been largely abandoned. Nowadays, the situation is porous and the individual actors are more interdependent than ever. And yet the art world is at the same time a self-contained world whose rules and openings call for constant questioning.

The artistic practice presented in Independence is not a sceptical, detached position, but rather one that draws on unlimited resources inside the structures and stories of art. It is downright fascinated with mechanisms that shape the processes of value creation and taste formation. It is interested in how and when symbolic added value and desire are created. The mechanisms of fashion, its dazzling power of seduction, of creating a desire to be someone else, and the possibilities it offers to embody or simulate identities are one of the key frames of reference for the practice presented here.

Arranged within these backdrops are new and older works, including many stemming from groups of works. For example, Independence features a series of new paintings which draw on imagery of the Japan collection of a famous St. Gallen-based textile company. These and other works exemplifying the practice demonstrate an interest in cultural transfer processes of styles and fashions within a sphere or beyond it, tracing global trajectories.

Another protagonist of Independence is Aibo. This silver-coloured robot dog is currently only available on the Japanese market through a lottery, a form of artificial scarcity that creates extreme desire. Some “events” in Independence and in this artistic practice in general also infiltrate (marketing) strategies of recent and older art history from other spheres. Practices of historical conceptual art or of “relational aesthetics”, which pushed social interactions between the public and the artist with feel-good actions, are discreetly taken up.

Against this backdrop of numerous references, the question remains what kind of independence is being declared here. Is it the independence from the Kunsthalle which shows one’s work? From the market? And if so, from which one? Or in general from the constraints of being in the world and from regulative structures that may be socially shared?

The artist presented in this exhibition remains nameless, for now. Visitors may wonder whether it is worth travelling to the opening when it remains unclear who is hiding behind the invitation to the exhibition. To the artist, on the other hand, it may offer the freedom to place special emphasis on the exhibition itself rather than on the marketing of the name. While the name may represent a promise or create certain expectations, self-imposed anonymity flirts with seduction through the appeal of the mysterious.

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Stan Smith, 2016» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Hydra Life, 2013» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Boy, 2018» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Untitled (NFS35), 2018» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Untitled (NFS36), 2018» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern

Exhibition View Tobias Kaspar «Independence / view on Aibo, 2018» at Kunsthalle Bern, 2018 / Photo: Gunnar Meier / Courtesy: the artist and Kunsthalle Bern