fusion journey

Formensch in Berlin (Video)

Completed at last: New world cup work of art!

After a creative process that lasted for almost the entire year, Dave's fourth world cup work of art has finally been completed! Bearing the title "REACHING FOR THE STARS", it marks the breaking of new ground in several ways for Dave. For instance, this is the first time that such a work has been completed not before, but during the world cup. This made it possible for Dave to include impressions of the competition's actual events -- numerous scenes that took place inside and outside of South Africa's stadiums this summer are depicted on it.

Since the first world cup in an African country was an event of great importance for the entire continent, Dave's goal was to create a work of art that dealt not just with football, but also lived up to the full depth of the event's historical background and its implications for the continent's future. This can easily be seen in the work's motifs: Nelson Mandela reaches his hand through the bars of his prison cell, a plant grows out of the dusty soil of the townships, and young children, playing football on a gigantic pane of glass, celebrate a goal. Two overdimensional players in gold and silver symbolize the competition, and on them, impressions of the world cup can be found: Cheering fans, victorious players and of course lots of vuvuzelas bring back memories of the summer.

Dave has not allowed himself to be limited to conventional modes of artistic expression, either -- giving his work of art the shape of a hollowed-out sphere that, with its diameter of 2.5 meters, easily fits a person. Gaps in its walls allow the observer to not only gaze into the work, but to actually step inside it.

Like the existing three world cup works of art, "Reaching for the stars" will be auctioned off for charity at a later date after being signed by the Spanish and Dutch national teams.

Public Fusion

Night performance

On January 28th, Dave's first ever performance in complete darkness took place. Before the eyes of an amazed audience, a large picture frame in a darkened room started filling with glowing visual fragments, which slowly came together to form complete images.

To achieve this astonishing effect, Dave worked with special paints on a phosphorus basis -- a technique he has previously used on a number of works, but never before as part of a performance.

This performance marked the opening of an exhibition of Dave's works at the Sprützehüsli in Oberwil, which will remain open until February 20th 2011.

The performance will take place twice more on Friday, February 4th (around 8 PM).

A few impressions of the first performance and of the vernissage can be found in the slideshow above. (Photography by Dani Altermatt.)

Exhibition
Sprützehüsli, Hauptstrasse 32, 4104 Oberwil, Switzerland
Friday 5 PM - 8 PM, Saturday 2 PM - 5 PM, Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM

Work in progress

New exhibition in Berlin

A heartfelt experiment

After almost two years of preparation, an event that was meant to bring together the worlds of art and charity for an evening finally took place on October 7th. Dave had invited René Prêtre, Swiss person of the year 2009, to his hometown of Laufen. Mr Prêtre, who is chief physician for heart surgery at the Zürich children's hospital, owes his high profile to the charitable work he does with his foundation "Le petit coeur", which provides free heart operations for children in need in developing countries.

Around a hundred guests were invited to see the exhibition, which took place in a space of around 1000 m². The evening's highlights were Mr Prêtre's presentation, which offered fascinating insights into his charitable work, and the first showing of the performance "Tote Episode" ("Dead episode"), held in complete darkness with the aid of fluorescent paint.

The goals of the evening were to create a cultural experience that falls outside of the usual patterns, and to raise awareness for the problems in developing countries as well as encouraging personal initiative. In order to contribute to this personally as well, Dave will be donating 20% of the proceeds for any work of his that is sold until the end of November 2011 to "Le petit coeur".

A few impressions of the event and performance can be found in the slideshow above.