08 March – 12 July 2020

David Renggli: Bongos at the Lido

Opening: Sunday, 08 March 2020, 11 am

David Renggli’s oeuvre is permeated with humour, poetry as well as musicality and comes to expression in the form of sculptures, conceptual painting and complex multimedia presentations. In addition, there are appropriations of pictorial languages from both everyday life and the traditions of cultural history, with contributions from ancient sculpture as well as pictures from the tabloid press and fashion magazines. Renngli’s works are also based on his wide-ranging collection of vintage erotic publications which, alongside paraphrases of ideals of beauty, are likewise characterised by sophisticated and innovative graphic designs.

With a wry wink of the eyes, David Renggli directs an ironical gaze towards the cult of beauty, forms of self-optimisation and instances of narcissistic self-referentiality; he uses collages embellished with painting to integrate his comments and reflections into a comprehensive pictorial atlas. As a Neo-Dadaist, David Renggli is entirely devoted to the free play of art – and occasionally also of music.

With deep gratitude we thank the Swiss Art Council Pro Helvetia for its gracious support.

Since February 2019

BELLE & APHRODITE

Augmented Reality

by Barbara Herold

In the app BELLE & APHRODITE for smartphone or tablet, it is possible to experience a walk-in audio-visual metamorphosis of virtual plants.

The 3D plant BELLE extends across the entire Merkelpark. As an interactive form-cloud, it leads visitors, on the basis of data regarding their location and movement, to a virtual rose at the centre of the park.

APHRODITE was designed for the skylit atrium. In recurrent audio-visual loops, the 3D installation develops into a Phalaenopsis, a familiar type of orchid. APHRODITE can be viewed from all perspectives and, in its overlapping of simulation space and actual space, plays with the experience of abstraction, proportional relationships, proximity and distance.

Barbara Herold (*1977) directs her attention to the shaping of reality through the media. She investigates structures and phenomena which have established themselves through the influence of media technology on society; she develops her own systems on the basis of prevalent design practices such as computation and algorithms. Her works arise in the dynamic field between analogue and digital technology.

Download App BELLE - APHRODITE

App Store & Google Play Store

Since  May 18th, 2014

Lois Weinberger – Mobiler Garten

The ‘Mobile Garden’ of the artist and Documenta participant Lois Weinberger, was set up in front of the winter garden of the Villa Merkel, where it will remain for an extended time. In its wildness, it contrasts with the surrounding Merkelpark, whose well-kept greenery is reminiscent of English landscape gardens.

A field formed out of yellow plastic tubs filled with soil has been exposed to the free forces of nature. Over time, pioneer and ruderal plants have come to occupy the space in a spontaneous colonisation. Nature unfolds in accordance with the dynamism of its own laws in a veritably paradisal, because free manner. A Garden of Eden established itself.

Over the years, this natural process of colonisation began to change into a form of decaThe tubs gradually become bleached and decompose. The plastic particles blend with the soil and the plants; after decades, rainfall can be expected to have washed the underlying area clean again.

The garden is a fundamental form of our encounter with nature. We are familiar with gardens that aim at producing crops as well as those that are set up as beatific sites of contemplation. Affinities with paradise are possessed by the fruit and vegetable garden, the Baroque pleasure garden or, as an oasis amid the city, the public garden – in Esslingen, namely the Maille and the Merkelpark.