Artists

Stefan Rinck

Press release

Stefan Rinck presents animal-like sculptures made of sandstone with characteristics that appear to come from the medieval era, at a time when people were intimidated by the menacing forces of animals. Today, Stefan Rinck places them on pedestals or on the floor positioning them in military formations alongside humanoid generals and re-endues them with their demonic potentials, which have been suppressed under the modern condition. As true swindlers, the animals always strive for more than their origin allows them, as a metaphor for the evolution of man. In possession of a self-conscious mind, just like humans, they have been expelled from paradise. The swindling animals are eager to adopt intellectual symbols: pointed hats as regalia of scholarship or alchemy, the cross as a symbol of morality, the robe as a sign of profane power and have a vision to defeat man using his very own means.