David Renggli – Scaramouche

David Renggli – in some respects a prodigy of the Swiss art scene – has repeatedly aroused the curiosity of the public for more than ten years thanks to a unique mixture of themes and forms, of spectacle, humour and poetry. An unexpected combination of various everyday materials and motifs characterises the artist’s heterogeneous repertoire consisting of sculptural objects, installations, photographs and reverse glass paintings. He frequently creates what appears familiar but which on closer examination reveals itself as surreal, absurd and grotesque. The moment of surprise is thus again and again the main aesthetic principle in David Renggli’s work. The Swiss artist is on the one hand interested in details to mark out what is special and enable a deeper insight but he is not afraid of grand gestures such as recently seen at the exhibition «The Charm of Ignorance» at Museum Bellpark Kriens (2012): Renggli filled all the museum walls with more than 2,000 collaged pictures in Petersburg hanging. His constant experimentation with classical museum displays as well as with art genres and motifs is a repeated theme in his work. At David Renggli’s solo exhibition at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen large format reverse glass paintings are evidence of this concern. The show also concentrates on another core topic in his work: communication in its various facets. He pays special attention to the power of illusion which emerges from the tension between form and content. The title of the exhibition «Scaramouche» points towards this. The reference to the figure from the Italian commedia dell’arte is less important here than the sound of the word itself, which first appears to roll off the tongue and then to melt away on it.