Robert Reszner
:
Form As a Possibility For a Dialogue
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Robert Reszner won the competition for the artistic design of the forecourt to the Gutenstein regional care home with a participatory concept that made artistic protagonists of some of the home's residents. As a result there are now three oversized colourful statues on the lawn in front of the building that are made of polystyrene sprayed with water-repellent, fibre-reinforced sealant and epoxy resin. They are enlargements of three objects that were made by residents of the home out of coloured modelling clay.
The project with which Robert Reszner dedicated himself to the people at the care home, most of whom suffer from senile dementia, is entitled Form als Möglichkeit zum Dialog. In collaboration with a qualified nurse he held conversations with many of the home's residents about their lives. During these chats Reszner asked his counterparts to shape coloured plasticine however they liked. The objects they created are reified memories, manifestations of feelings — sometimes created parallel to a narrative, sometimes in its place. "What fascinates me about this work is that experiences translate themselves directly into shapes, and these shapes are generated by the residents of the care home. So the care home becomes a centre for formulating shapes where an inner world is transferred creatively outwards", says the artist. The narratives were written down and displayed in a showcase along with the objects. Robert Reszner selected three objects from all of those made which he then had executed as up to two and a half metre long outdoor sculptures made of weatherproof and UV-resistant material.
It is the sculptor's first project with a participatory approach. Please note, however, that the artistic merit of the project remains a priority for Robert Reszner. The process of finding the form here can be equated with a process of inventing language. The aim is to find immediate forms of expression for things that cannot be said. This being so, Robert Reszner did not alter his method as an artist for Gutenstein at all. He is a kind of alchemist whose point of departure for his artworks is the properties of the material, for which to find an — appropriate — ideal form. His installations, interventions and functional objects are reminiscent of experimental arrangements. They are the results of processes that he subjects the material to by generating different physical states and mixing different components and elements. This is expressed in titles like Im Holz, Innere Wasser, Luftverhältnis or Brutanstalt (In The Wood, Inner Water, Air Ratio or Brut Institution). In this sense, the project for the regional care home could also be called Dialogue as a Possibility for Form.
(Cornelia Offergeld)
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