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M r Bogner, you have studied architecture and design at the State Academy
of Art & Design in Stuttgart and, immediately after graduating with your
diploma, you have set out as a freelance artist. Please explain to us when did
it first emerge that you would, in future, definitely be looking for your profes-
sional field of activity outside of any architectural office?
When it comes right down to it, working as a visual artist was not a clear decision
but rather an ongoing development accompanied me during the whole period of
my studies. What mainly interested me all the time was the artistic analysis of ar-
chitecture. I became aware early on that I preferred to express myself by freer ar-
tistic means. I frequently found myself looking at buildings or constructions rather
like looking at a picture or a composition and less at a building project to be im-
plemented. I also again and again sought the proximity to the liberal arts which,
together with architecture, are combined under one roof in the Stuttgart art aca-
demy. During and right after my studies, opportunities arose for me to exhibit my
works. This encouraged me to work as a visual artist in the future.

r You use various means of expression in two- and three-dimensional forms,
are working on collages, paintings, drawings and architectural objects. To
what extent do these various methods influence each other?
In my work, I always apply several different tools in order to revolve around a
topic I have in mind. While doing so, my intention is always to analyse spaces, ar- Ohne Titel (2017): Graphit auf Papier, 54 x 74 cm • graphite on paper, 54 x 74 cm
chitectures, places and their contexts. Several works frequently originate in paral-
lel, I mostly work in series. It may happen that I cannot represent or express a spe-
cific theme or idea in a drawing. In that case, the theme or idea shows up in a
model or a collage. In a new series of collages which I recently completed, I for in-
stance combined photographs of places existing in reality with the medium of the
drawing. Besides drawings, collages and works on canvas, objects are for me a dif- Ohne Titel (2017): Mischtechnik auf Papier, 40 x 30 cm • mixed media on paper, 40 x 30 cm
ferent way to express and represent space since their three-dimensionality produ-
ces more spatial layers than would be possible in a drawing. In addition, while
looking at the objects, constantly changing insights, views and perspectives are
produced. In principle, sketches and drawings are important tools in my work.
They serve the reflection and the preparation of my works. I am sketching every
day. My sketchbooks, in which I also write a lot, are for me archives of ideas and
thoughts on which I keep relying.

r For you, space has many facets. This is shown by themes such as “retreat
room”, “protective space” or “reconstruction”. How important for you conti-
nues to be the analysis of the built environment?
The analysis of the built environment is for me a basis for finding the themes and
forms of my works. Architecture, landscapes or built structures of any kind are im-
portant sources of inspiration for me. A sort of “inner archive” of thematic and for-
mal themes is developing inside of me to which I refer in my works. I find the the-
mes of my works in derelict industrial areas, at construction sites or in buildings
which are still just a shell or being demolished. What interests me is the unfinis-
hed, the fragmentary and the provisional. Rooms which are in the process of being
built, for instance in shells, can have sculptural qualities for me. In this “rough
state”, themes such as spatial openings, views inside and outside are expressed in
a condensed form. The accumulations of materials, equipment or provisional con-
structions also frequently found in such rooms have, for me, often the quality of
installations or furnishings as one would then find them in the building at the end
of the construction phase.

r In the Stuttgart Raumgalerie, your exhibition “Imaginierte Räume” was re-
cently shown. How are we to understand this title?
The exhibition title perfectly puts an essential aspect of my work in a nutshell.
“Imagined rooms” are for me not actually existing rooms or places and neither are
they already designs at the beginning of the creative process. The works which are
exhibited show spatial structures which have been created in my inner imaginary
world and originated intuitively in the process. The drawings are deliberate com-
positions of layers and overlays; they are imagined architectural and scenic struc-
tures or topographies. One of the groups of several objects which were also exhi-
bited at Raumgalerie in the show, for instance, represents an imagined space
which refers to topics such as station, place or landscape.

AIT 9.2019 • 047