Luc Mattenberger (Geneva, b. 1980)
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Stainless steel, black silicone, 2009
31 1/2 x 3 15/16 x 3 15/16 inches
Exhibited:
Suspended in the air, The Struggle is Over by Swiss artist, Luc Mattenberger offers the mystery of a cluster of multiple anthropomorphic reflections. Suffering with the gravity force, the forearms are directed towards the ground and appear to be relics of a time past. Prisoners of steel spheres, their fists appear forever trapped by the sharp stainless spikes that suggest the dark impulses of man. Liberated from their cluster, they are elegant, amputated pieces of an unknowable narrative.
At the age of 29, Luc Mattenberger is the youngest artist involved in Steellife. He works in his native city, Geneva, and his primary passion is for mechanics - his aim is to successfully translate into art the complex articulation of mechanisms, gears and alien compositions which, although influenced by the valuable legacy of fellow Swiss artist Tinguely, embrace a thoroughly modern historic and cultural scene. There is a powerful duality in his works: on the one hand his fascination for technology and engineering, on the other, the unsettling fear of their being used for deviant, malignant purposes. His installations run along this subtle, ambiguous thread: good and evil. All his creations can function and interact with the space, if someone only dares to handle or touch them. The interaction with the public is hinted at, and onlookers are granted the great freedom of fearing or loving these creations.
