The publication “Arbeiten 1998–2004” by Jürg Hugentobler is being published to accompany the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn and provides the first comprehensive overview of his work.
Hugentobler works with wood, styrofoam or clay, constructs forms or uses existing ones. He constructs new architectures: three-dimensional as models, onto which he sometimes additionally projects, or two-dimensional as ab-images by photographing his models. Again and again, his arrangements are irritating because they cannot be categorized in terms of size and materiality at first glance.
The continuous crossing of genre and dimensional boundaries is part of his preoccupation with reality. He usually understands this – in the literal sense of the word – as an effect, above all as the action of light. When Hugentobler speaks of appearance, the true appearance of a perceptible light is therefore to be understood just as often as the false appearance of illusion. Although this connection between illusion and reality is part of the creative process, what is essential is the perceptible orientation towards the human being, who is supposed to move in Hugentobler's rooms, his cities, houses and furniture – whether actually or only in imagination. This is why all his works, not only his three-dimensional installations, sculptures and models, but also his photographs, appear as spatial art.
“Works 1998–2004” provides an insight into the rich oeuvre of Jürg Hugentobler and, by juxtaposing works from six years, shows the great continuity and conclusiveness of the projects.