Torsten Mühlbach "What is your purpose on Earth" Vernissage

In the organizer's words:

Torsten Mühlbach (*1974), who grew up in the countryside and was influenced by the rebellious energy of heavy metal and punk, developed the desire to become a painter at an early age. But fate led him to a sculpture class, where he learned to shape his ideas with materials. The longing for images remained, and so he found his own way to create his art not with paint, but with tangible elements. His works are an expression of an unconventional view of the world - raw, direct and at the same time deeply reflective.

His art moves between garbage and brilliance and includes material paintings, garbage bag paintings and reliefs. During his studies, he began not only to collect garbage, but to systematically research it - he spent months searching through garbage cans at the academy, sorting, cataloging and photographing packaging. This made him realize that we all have a waste problem. While traveling, he noticed that garbage bags in other countries were much more colorful than the uniform blue of German bags - an observation that shaped his approach to material and color. His now considerable collection of bin bags from all over the world forms the basis of his art.

The current exhibition shows a collection of material pictures that are not only visually captivating, but also raise socially relevant questions. Here, supposedly insignificant everyday objects and iconic symbols of cultural history come together. Garbage bags from all over the world merge with quotes from comics, films, song lyrics and advertising messages to create multi-layered compositions. The deliberate combination of seemingly random elements creates works that point to deeper connections and contradictions in our consumer society. The exhibition invites us to rethink materials and look behind the surface of our throwaway society.

The material used is - as in traditional painting: oil.