Björn Braun’s work is based on the process of transformation: In a synthesis of appending and removing the artist generates pictures, collages, objects and installations, which shift between natural formation and artificial shaping. For Braun, paper, wood, fibres and feathers in different manifestations – as industrially produced textiles or as articles found in nature – are the raw substances that he subjects to a discourse rich in imagery. The material in its respective state plays just as important a role for the artist as the object or item itself.
Björn Braun takes the exploration of a material regarding its potential for transformation as a point of departure, thus examining to what extent an object must be altered in order to produce a narrative element. The concept of turning material into a narrator is a substantial component of his work. The viewer, as recipient and witness of the transformative process, is able to conceive the narrative on his own, due to its integral openness, and at the same time perceive an unlimited spectrum of sovereign meanings. Another focal theme in his artistic work is collaboration with animals, often with birds, mice or bees, which he integrates in his artistic process in various ways. Sometimes the animal is called on to physically cooperate, the artist merely selects and provides working material, sometimes the artist seizes on the shape of a certain habitat and forms a new sculpture from it.
Björn Braun’s work oscillates between dissociation, dissolution and conversion; the transformative process, as a basis of his artistic method, produces a self-referential visual language in his sculptures, objects and collages.
Text: Galerie Meyer Riegger
