Mantis City
Solo Exhibition Shanghai Duolun MoMA
Oct. 27 - Nov 25. 2006
Curated by Bijana Ciric

Exhibitions

Biljana Ciric | Interview with Tobias Bernstrup
Exhibition text for Shanghai Duolun MoMA October 2006

BC: Let’s start from beginning…can you tell me where you studied, the first piece that you produced, and about your interest in video games?

TB: I got my MFA at The Royal College University of Fine Arts in Stockholm 1993-1998. One of my very first works was a peepshow cinema-like installation where I projected a video showing me dressed up as a love doll. I have always been interested in working with sets and costumes in both performances and videos. The music has often played a central role in my work. Before art school I had a background playing in different bands. But my interest in video games and computers started long before that when I was a kid. I played a lot of Space invaders on the first Atari console and then later I got a Commodore VIC-20 home computer on which I programed my very first computer games in the language BASIC.

BC: How the collaboration with Palle Torsson start and how did it work between you two developing an idea collectively?

TB: We met in college and shared an interest for computers and critical ideas. We did a series of collaborations together, among them 'Join Hands' one of the first Internet based project in 1995, that ended up in a controversy and got censored. After that we worked on the project 'Museum Meltdown' (1995-1999) where we reconstructed three different art museum in classical First Person Shooter games like Duke Nukem, Quake and Half-Life. The visitor was able to walk around in a game version of the museum shooting monsters, breaking and blowing up the master pieces.

BC: Your video game based work can be connected with the Koolhaas "Generic City" concept of places without qualities and identity. How is architectural structure in your video work connected to the social and cultural layers in between?

TB: I often try to disconnect the architecture and isolate it by removing the individual and the functionality as doors etc. I pay a lot of attention to textures and repetitiveness. I prefer to look at architecture as sets.

BC: Besides video game based animation pieces you ar also perform your own music. What was you first performance, and what was the character that you developed?

TB: My first music performance was in 1997, a project onboard a ferry cruiser between Stockholm and Helsinki during the European Smart Show Art Fair. I was performing Italo Disco songs from mid 1980s. My costume at that time was a kind of androgynous gigolo look. After that performances gradually started to merge more and more with my digital characters and environments.

BC: The notion of sexuality is present in your performances as well as the question of gender. How is it connected to your other works? Where the inspiration for these characters come from?

TB: All my works deal with a fascination for the surface. It can be the shiny surface of a rubber costume or the sterile facade of a skyscraper of metal and glass. Many of my characters are inspired by video games - characters that often represent a stereotype of a sexual fantasy. But at the same time the interactive nature of a video game allows the player to assume any sexual identity and gender when choosing an avatar.

BC: Mantis City is the piece that you produced for you Shanghai solo exhibition implying the techniques of early science fiction movies. What is the concept of the piece and what are the issues that you are trying to raise?

TB: In the summer of 2005 I spent a month in Shanghai. I had just been watching the film 'Logans run' and came to think of the similarities with the architecture model the used for the opening scene of the movie. I constructed a 1:1000 scale model over the futuristic Pudong skyline in which live insects, Praying Mantises were filmed as they climbed the Oriental Pearl and Jin Mao towers and snuck around in the dark before their final confrontation. Filmed with a macro lens the insects appear like giant monsters. The idea of the two Mantises came from the old Chinese tradition of insect fights and is also inspired by early Asian Sci-Fi movies like Mothra and Godzilla where these monsters invade the city. The history of the mantis has been surrounded by myths as described in French surrealist avant-garde theorist Roger Callois' essay "The Praying Mantis" some true others not, but still a fascinating creature...

BC: Can you tell me about the relationship between Mantis City and urban development of China especially Shanghai? Did you think about how the piece will be preceived by the local audience?

TB: While working on the piece, I became interested in the 'unrealness' of the architecture - how reality mimics fiction and vice versa.

BC: Can you tell me about your records and CD’s you have produced? Where are they distributed? Who are the buyers and who are the people who listen your music?

TB: My music releases are a part of my work production as an artist. I have done music releases in collaboration with museums and institutions such as Färgfabriken in Stockholm and Kunsthalle Nuremberg. Since 2002 I have been running my own label Tonight Records. The records are mainly sold and distributed through art book stores, and a few special dedicated record stores in Europe and the US. Apart from people the art world I also have an audience connected to the electronic music and club scene.

BC: Is there any film director or any figure who have been influential on your work?

TB: I am a big fan of John Carpenter (both as a director and composer), Kubrick, Cronenberg and Fritz Lang to name a few.

2006 Duolun Museum of Modern Art Shanghai
Translation: Shui Jitian, Liu Yuncong