8 Questions with Tobias Tavella

Tobias Tavella is a conceptual artist featured in Al-Tiba9 magazine ISSUE04, interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj.

Tobias Tavella’s "Dynamic Studio Practice" examines sculpture, sound, and objects according to their space-constituting consequences. He creates new contexts of meaning where sounds, "objet trouvés" from nature, and technology are his primal spatial experience of fragility. With his temporary spatial interventions, he reflects the social framework of art and its conditions of production and representation.

tobiastavella.com |@tobias.tavella

How was your art born? 

I studied at the Faculty of Design at the University of Arts in Berlin. During my studies, I realized that I didn’t want to make products for serial production. We live in a world were too much trash is produced from our consumerist production and where so many good design products already exist. I did not see the need for coming up with even more product ideas. Therefore I started working more and more experimentally and conceptually. I worked as a production assistant in the studio Olafur Eliasson. This experience guided me in a contemporary direction. I understood how art can change the way we perceive our social and natural environment. I realized that the starting point of my art is nature as embodied space. I was already producing sound, making sculptures and collecting artifacts and natural materials but I had never combined these different practices. A transmedia approach directed my work towards my current multidimensional conceptual art installations. 

Could you tell us about your formative years? What other influences shaped your artistic career? 

My design studies were important for my personal development, provided the knowledge to work with different materials and mediums. The other interesting thing about the UDK is that I had the freedom of thought and the opportunity to experiment in a constant dialogue. There, the boundaries between art and design often blurred. I attended lectures with the topic of experimental electronic Instruments and started to produce music as a side project. My thesis was an experimental Instrument, an organ-flute carrier. It came along with a theoretical work that treated the influence of real mechanical sound on time and space perception. 

In Eliasson’s studio, I realized the potential of light as a medium, as a material to create an atmosphere. Being daily confronted with professional art production influenced me a lot by the scale of his art productions was an influence and how Olafur tries to gain the social impact of art integrating topics like climate change in an active process. 

The nature with its mountains and woods of my native territory had for sure a great influence on my work. It shaped the way I perceive my environment and it gained my interest in fractal geometries and natural sciences. My collaboration with the performance artist Dawn Kasper at the Venice Biennale in 2017. Her way of interaction with the spectators, the arrangement of her performative studio space opened up a new view on my artistic practices.

How do you classify your art? 

I try not to classify or categorize my art. In my opinion, artists have to be dynamic to catch the present essence. Classifications can be a limitation for working dynamically. 

The intersubjective reality is the value that stands at the core of my work. It is about an examination of reality and space. On one hand, there is the question of space philosophy and thus of limitation and opening, on the other hand, there are spatial conditions such as studios and exhibition spaces. With my temporary spatial interventions, I reflect on the social framework. The artistic production needs space, it also needs places for its presentation. It is important to create multidimensional installations giving to the visitor a multi-sensorial experience of space. In the future, I am about to explore the smell’s dimensions.

Where does your imagery come from? How do you decide if an object or a sound is the best fit for your installation? 

My imagery is a result of long research about the atmosphere and nature but also its fractal geometries, organic shapes, time, space and sound. My sound is a mix of computer-generated music and field recordings from the environment. This helps me to perceive my surroundings. Using the transitoriness I integrate a material or an object into my installation. 

If you take a closer look at the branches, you see worms in the early decomposition. When taking out the branches out of the humid woods, it slows down the transience. While recording, I stabilize the ephemeral nature of the sounds to have a low impact on my environment. 

Your conceptual installations merge both technology and nature in neutral spaces to create a new context of meaning. How might you explain your complex artistic production to our readers in an accessible way? 

One thing I do is to take objects and materials out of their natural habitat and put a focus on them. A few branches and their shapes are not recognized. I organize different components and focus on the quality of different materials and mediums, highlighting the contrast between organic shapes and geometric forms or spaces.

What are the key steps in creating your conceptual projects, from A to Z? 

How to perceive the space I’m working/exhibiting in; Prepare my tools or create new ones; Decide which material objects from my archive could fit in; Explore the environment; Search for materials and record sounds; Assemble different materials and sound of performance; Communication and interaction with the spectators; Evaluate the impact of my work; Reintegrate materials and sounds in new installations

Can you tell us about one of the most exciting and/or challenging projects you have worked on? 

It was my solo exhibition „aB“ in the newly build stable at my brothers’ farm. It’s important to bring art in these kinds of environments and confront people working in other fields with new reality concepts. It always influences the way of thinking and the perception of those rural contexts of production. The new stable is about 150 square meters big with an open front and green roof. Our present digital age enables us to work in this kind of environment. Even if there were not many spectators at the opening, the Internet makes it possible for people around the world to have access to the documentation. 

What are your upcoming projects?

The “Form and Sound Expedition Vehicle”. It will be a vehicle intended for artistic research and as a mobile studio, a moving device to operate in dialogue with different social and natural environments in a nomadic artistic practice. It will be a facility for the production of my work. It carries different types of equipment, for example, woodworking tools, music instruments and synthesizers, and documentation tools.