Thomas Baumann – The Language of Movement

Sculptures and installations of the artist Thomas Baumann possess the quality of being alive. Usually, they are moving. They de-form, they make noises, they move their observers: emotionally, in terms of their beliefs, through the challenge to participate even physically. Movement, says the artist, is a language of our time. We understand it and feel addressed by it on different levels.

Thomas Baumann's produces his work from mechanical, technological, and electronic materials. The units of construction have their own aesthetic, and do not remain hidden behind the façades of design. In this way, the sculptures retain the quality of being mechanically engineered works of art which create the effect of being the siblings of those machines that are used in the production lines of industrial manufacturing.

In view of their proximity to their rationalized relatives – in terms of production optimization and the avoidance of side effects – Baumann’s works of art, taken out of the manufacturing context, show a surprisingly soulful dimension to its human viewers. They have lyrical sides, humor, they pull one in, they require time, they provoke social critique and thoughtfulness, they delight, they reveal souls which have been exorcised from production-optimized machinery and its operators and have reappeared under the hand of the artist. Technology’s original function, says Thomas Baumann, was to please humans and enhance their existence—a purpose which he attaches to his artistic work. (wh/jn)

http://www.thomasbaumann.net/

Interviewee: Thomas Baumann
Artworks by: Thomas Baumann

Copyright info: The audio and video recording has been made with personal permission of the artist.
Licensing: 0
Language(s): German, English
Subtitles: German, English
Producer: KA21 GmbH / CastYourArt
Production crew: Ewa Stern, Wolfgang Haas, Pablo Naranjo
Production country: Austria, Vienna