From the 12th of April to the 17th of May 2008, we are pleased to present the second solo exhibition of the Zurich based artist David Renggli at the Galerie Chez Valentin in Paris. Seeking always to subvert the truth, “Truth is just true for a moment,” and show the surrealism of life beneath, the exhibition title “Ivresse au cognac”and be loosely translate to being drunk on cognac. David Renggli’s subject matter can best define in this state of blurriness. He tries to neither represent or present anything. A sculpture can be looked at as a piece of shiity iron (a profane object) but with an IKEA product finish ( a sacred aura.) The sculptures in the exhibition put disorder into form rather than meaning to have a logical end to a formal sculpture.
The exhibition can be described in one of David’s allegory : A rookie police when he starts to work on the first day he is not really a cop but then after a while he identifies himself with what he is doing if someone does not respect the law he has to represent the law and order and he get personally upset by the people who broke the rules. And before long, he becomes what he does. This allegory of patronage can be said in terms of artistic patronage. It is not the postmodern anti-aestheicism, anti-originiality. Instead it embraces the form of others. The individual ceases and the social individual replaces it, like the rookie fused to his social role and becomes a police. David Renggli’s paintings pay a homage to the 1970’s street artist, Harald Nägeh, from Zurich, who in turn fuses this identity of the individual and the social together. The result are images that are peculiar and forms bizarre.
David Renggli received the Swiss Art Award in 2007. He has an ongoing exhibition at Kunsthaus, in Zurich until June. His upcoming exhibitions includes Migros Museum in May in Zurich and a solo exhibition at Gio Marconi in 2009 in Milan.