*1980 in Würzburg, Germany, lives in Leipzig and Berlin
Looking at the recent works of Sebastian Stumpf one finds an interplay between performance and the recording of performance, between the execution of a physical act and the documentation of it by means of a camera. The young artist operates in two distinct realms: in the empty spaces of contemporary art institutions and in urban settings with their preexisting orders. Stumpf’s appearance before the camera strikes the viewer as both artistic and subversive. An inconspicuous architectural detail suddenly becomes the catalyst for a physical exploit that astonishes, appalls, inspires laughter or troubles us. The art gallery becomes a space for action. Or by an act of functional mobilization the city and its walls, columns, trees, garages, bridges and passage ways become a kind of practice field.
