Patrick Baumüller
His benevolent interest in the ordinary, a curious gaze towards the hustle and bustle of the world, and taking pleasure in interventions in the here and now, these are considered the trademark features of Patrick Baumüller’s art. Born in Switzerland in 1969, the artist graduated from the University of Arts and Industrial Design, Linz , now lives in Sulz (located in the south of Burgenland, Austria). He has made forays into such diverse genres as installations, performance, art in public spaces, interventions, and photography.
Read moreIn terms of creative methods and techniques, he is always searching for new approaches and likes to borrow from such down-to-earth procedures as do-it-yourself, tinkering, or handiwork. His resourceful approach to different media is matched by the flexibility of his personal artistic style. Here, too, his creations do not boil down to a system or pattern.
His gaze turns trivial objects into marvels. The silent poetry of these installations arises from their open minded approach. Baumüller zooms in on a great variety of appearances in an impartial manner, steers clear of emotionalism, and always maintains a critical attitude. He emphatically shows us the world we live in as marked by the effects of globalization and leads us to see how, again and again, the obscure connections between political, social, economic, ecological, and other phenomena point us to the complexity of our own actions. In this scenario it seems that, on the one hand, it is next to impossible to decide what is of primary importance. On the other hand, we are in need of individual as well as collective methods of decision-making and self-authorization that give back to us a certain degree of autonomous, independent thinking and actions. That, in turn, requires circumspection and attention, aspects that play a central role in Patrick Baumüller’s work. Those who let themselves be drawn into his visual thoughts will suddenly be faced with having to decide for themselves whether they expand personal perception or whether our gaze into the mirror of art remains blind.
