The objects and space-consuming sculptures of Tobias Putrih focus in particular on the ideological or social significance of modern, virtual and utopian architectural designs. Cardboard is one of the materials that the artist frequently uses, for it epitomizes the provisional, but is also the building material of models, of things to be tested. Thus, his monumental installation Connection from 2004 is an expansive arch made of cardboard boxes.

All of the same format, these boxes are piled up one inside the next; each bent several degrees to the side so that the outcome is an arched form of balanced elegance. A great many models, ideas and stimuli for this object can be found in projected and realized architecture, but also in art history. The most prominent example from the U.S. is Eero Saarinen’s design for the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis (1968); 192 meters high, this is now the city’s most prominent landmark and one of the key three-dimensional works of the second half of the 20th century – famed for the bold, timeless beauty of its form. Another representative of constructed archway fantasies who invites comparison is Bernar Venet, famous for his steel arches. His magical, enigmatic arch segment dominates the area in front of the Urania in Berlin’s Tiergarten district.

But Putrih’s arch is not built for eternity. The material implies that it is rather more of a design; here, attractive parallels could be drawn to utopians like Boullée and Ledoux, the great philosopher-architects of the French Revolution. Ultimately, this cardboard staging – constructed in space – might be a reflection of what such “arch-architecture” signifies: it always has a triumphal element.

Tobias Putrih was born in 1972 in the Slovenian town of Kranj. He studied art in Ljubljana and Düsseldorf. The critical cardboard utopian now lives and works in New York.