Stefan Guggisberg "Übernahme"

After having explored various experiments in sciences to
approach substantiality through research questions and
their results, the quantum physicist Hans-Peter Dürr (born
in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1929) found this can only be
resolved in the form of analogies. In the conclusion of his
own intensive work as a natural scientist, Dürr states that
„the basic reality bears more analogies with the
unfathomable, vivid spirit than with the tangible substantial
matter we are familiar with." His thinking beyond series of
experiments and verifiability to the point of the non-tangible
of the spirit show a visual equivalent in Stefan Guggisberg’s
works. Guggisberg’s motifs defy a spatial and temporal
determinability – leading the viewer towards a visual area
where the definable and established forms have dissolved in
order to adopt a new inner order. This way, Stefan
Guggisberg creates a reality on paper gaining validity
through the gradual resolution of the figure and the thus
developed coloured areas and waves which opens a
resonance field for the spirit in particular. Guggisberg
himself talks about a self-contained cosmos of images
created by way of “conducting” forces and motions. By
“conducting” he refers to the very particular genesis of
works bearing an intrinsic processual quality in various
respects: he covers the sheet of paper with oil paint to then
create the actual motif of the picture by obliterating the
paint he applied beforehand.

An erasing element draws – and areas, at times rather
dominant, at other times rather delicate, remain.

Guggisberg thus expands from a coated superficial area into
a subsurface which can also be regarded as such with
regards to its content: uncovering the exterior exposes
what lies within. According to Stefan Guggisberg, the basis
for this working process is not a concept of motifs but an
anticipation. As the drawer’s hand works as a transmitter
for an inner motion, the body of the viewer becomes a
receiver of an oscillation caused by the structure of colours
and drawings. Looking at these pictures – especially the big
sheets – the viewer is almost physically set in motion.

Within the oscillating monochrome and multi-coloured
layers of drawings, the viewer’s gaze starts to drift.

However, there is no need to search for the meaning of
motifs. It is in fact the experience of a non-existing end
point and thus of maximum openness and wideness. Stefan
Guggisberg’s pictures present an invitation to gain notional
access. If the viewers take this visual path they are enabled
to anticipating a different new clarity. Text: Elisa
Tamaschke, 2011. Stefan Guggisberg, born 1980 in
Thun/Switzerland, since 2010 master class of Neo Rauch,
HGB Leipzig/Germany.