David Renggli: Work, Life, Balance Exhibition Catalogue Villa Merkel Esslingen

The present monograph Work, Life, Balance focuses on artistic works by David Renggli from 2006 until today, with no claim to the completeness of a list of works, but most certainly with respect for the striking heterogeneity inherent to the oeuvre of the Swiss artist and musician. It offers a broad overview of the oeuvre and provides informative impres­sions of the slyly dandy-like self-stagings of the artist. Should his works be understood merely as odes to hedonism? Not at all! David Renggli revives highly ­diverse cliches of adamant desire and idyllic ­imaginings, only to confront them in a subtle, ­sensitive manner with their own deconstructions. With a vigorous wink of the eyes, he adopts an ­ironical perspective with regard to ideals of beauty and the cult of physical allure, not hesitating to ­critique the urge to self-optimisation and the ­egocentricity of self-infatuation. As a Neo-Dadaist, David Renggli remains unswervingly ­devoted to the free play of art and also of music: "My favourite instrument? Snare drum."

Clara Guislain, French art critic, studied art history and is currently working on her doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris. She is a research assistant at the University of Aix-Marseille. Andreas Baur worked in Hamburg for the Deichtorhallen, the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Kunsthaus; from 1998–2001 he was appointed founding director of Kunsthaus Baselland in Muttenz near Basel; since April 2001 he has been director of Villa Merkel, galleries of the city of Esslingen am Neckar. Adam Jasper is a research assistant in the chair of Professor Philip Ursprung at ETH Zurich. He is editor of the gta papers, co-editor of Cabinet Magazine and writes regularly for Artforum and other art magazines.