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In each case I mention the chronologically first work of a particular type in its relevant context:

1979

Large-scale stationary installation connected to architecture in the entryway of the tunnel passage at the ratinger Gate in Düsseldorf: Wedge.

1979

Simulated double wall in corner vitrine, displayed in 1980 at the Circular Exhibition at the Klasse Kamp, State Academy of Fine Arts/Düsseldorf: Reflector (preserve). Since then numerous objects consisting of simulated wall surfaces in corners or parallel to the exhibition wall.

1980

Start of the long-term cooperation with Heike Pallanca. Work with locations, with public and private spaces. The Museum is everywhere! Architecture is a pliable, formable mass. The location with its history and function as the basis of and for works of art; that surround the viewer with their multidimensionality and that can be experienced only as wholes. There is no work of art without a context! The separation of a work of art from its context is an Original Sin. Self-organized exhibitions and cooperation with other artists throughout Europe, mostly in empty or abandoned buildings.

1981

Installation object capable of being entered with underwater image, exhibited in the Stl. Kunstakademie Düsseldorf during the yearly Rundgangsausstellung Walk On.

1982

Several weeks of Living and Working with six artists working with spaces in a museum about to be torn down ­ Transformation of the Building. This exhibition was organized by W. Robbe, ULTIMO, and the Kunstsammlung Düsseldorf.

1982

Water-Stage: A row of water basins beneath a horizontal, floating insert slit connecting two rooms: Reflection of fragments of the opposite rooms, each hidden from the other, ULTIMO, Kunstsammlung Gelsenkirchen (Art Collection Gelsenkirchen).

1983

Installation with a metronome-like light pendulum casting shadows in the former Kocher Hospital in Berne (CH).

1983

Paintings on and behind acrylic glass: POOL I. The image is expanded through its reflection back onto the installation encompassing the space.

1984

Beginning of the Metaworks: The Haus Waende 84
(House Walls 84) is a joint work with the artists S. Demary, A. Lieber, H. Pallanca, W. Robbe, K. Schmitt and S. Wiecorek. It is part of the series of exhibitions organized by Pallanca/Robbe with staged locations in empty buildings. It is a miniature museum built by these artists as a house within a house in a former factory building in Düsseldorf. The building with its surroundings was used for prototypically different exhibits and then was torn down again as part of the (metawork’s) concept.

1985

Simulated double room in the storage hall of the former Avantgardemuseum, Bismarckstrasse, Mönchengladbach, Germany. Part of the exhibition: Wiederöffnung Haus Waende (House Walls Reopening).

1985

Paintings with transparent lacquer on paper: River and lake pieces, analogously matte and high-gloss areas.

1985/86

Within the framework of a state-sponsored graduate student sabbatical at the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf:
Two-year investigation with series of experiments on the phenomenon of reflection, transparency, and refraction of water in dependence on light ­ water as an optical body.

1985

Start of the work with the theme of the Underwater Room: First functioning model filled with water.

1986

Installation with a Postcard as a sculpture spread all over the world. This is part of an installation with simulated walls in a private home, disguising an art exhibition; Two Masks, Chambre d’amis, Museum van Heeden-daagse Kunst, Ghent.

1987

SLALOM, Salon am Burgplatz (Saloon at the Burgplatz): First Slalom Project (Metawork). These works were a joint creation by Heike Pallanca and Wolfgang Robbe. The SLALOM, Salon am Burgplatz was a very unusual new gallery in Düsseldorf’s City Center with an exhibition program moving among formal extremes. It was a secret play in twelve acts, similar to a theatrical stage-setting, that was exactly planned in advance with the invited guest artists and an art historian, who played the new gallery owner. At the end of the project the public was informed about the truth of the matter.

1988

Specially constructed scooters with a SLALOM inscription by Pallanca/Robbe as action sculptures for adults and children. Visitors to the exhibition Kunstkongress (Art Conference) could use them to explore the rooms of the Kunstverein (Artists’ Association) in Hamburg, Germany.

1989

Painted Light-and Shadow illusion in 1:1 proportion on a wall relief (reflector, modified) on the occasion of the exhibition by Pallanca/Robbe in the Kunstverein of the Rheinland and Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Germany.

1989

Rented visitors with a discreet Slalom-badge were mixed
in with the true visitors of the exhibition´s opening: SLALOM-Rent a Visitor, a Pallanca/Robbe at Kunst-verein für die Rheinland und Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

1990

The Reflector Manifesto: The Reflector, Absorber and Radiator in the catalogue Wolfgang Robbe, Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg.

1990

Symmetrical, enterable Installation with walls and tilted-open windows. About Yesterday and Tomorrow. Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg, Germany.

1991

Pedestrian Precinct Chapel formed as a wall cross with park benches as an inner room maximally compressed with-in an outer room with painted light-and-shadow illusion. Ambivalent inner and outer stage. On the occasion of the exhibition, Im Lärm der Stadt (In the City’s Noise), Sprengel Museum - Foundation Niedersachsen, Germany.

1991

Object with equivalent front and rear sides, simulating injection-moulded plastic casts. Reflector, modified, on the front and rear sides.

1993

Performance object with slightly differing but equivalent front and rear sides and user’s instructions casted in
three languages:
Appliance for external use, both front
and rear sides.

1998

Underwater room models: Computer simulation in 3D technique, local constructions.

2000

Cooperation with Architects, starting with the first phase
of the architectural competition, aimed at producing optimally integrated art works.

2001

Manifesto: The Underwater Room I on the occasion of the exhibition and in the catalogue with the same title: Wolfgang Robbe ­ Underwater Rooms, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany).

2001

The Well Manifesto

2003

The virtual Robbe Museum with a film of an underwater room. Wolfgang Robbe: Project, Idea, artistic work, Helmut Raschewski: 3D Techniques, Animation, preliminary version of the film shown at the stand of the Galerie Svestka at the ArtBasel, Switzerland.

2003

Internet sites: robbeSpace.de and robbe-Underwaterroom.de

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DEUTSCH          © 2003 by Wolfgang Robbe. All rights reservrd          ENGLISH
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