Face-o-mat Exhibtion: Tobias Gutmann's Live Performance

At the heart of Tobias Gutmann’s artistic practice lies the creation and investigation of encounters – between people, cultures and environments, but also between what we perceive on the outside and what we feel on the inside. Constantly aiming to enter into a flow state of creation, the act of drawing becomes a ritual in which the artist manifests and captures his encounters through his hands. The drawings always entail playfulness and curiosity, wilderness and tranquility. With his portrait performance Face-o-mat, Tobias Gutmann has met over 5000 people worldwide to draw abstract interpretations of what he sees in their faces. Rather than providing a photorealistic depiction, the artist aims to capture the sound of a person. The ever-growing archive of his drawings has developed its own language and meaning, dissolving into multiple narratives in various mediums.

In a 2 month exhibition, Tobias Gutmann presents his Face-o-mat at Ithra. The site-specific cardboard installation serves as an environment for the three-day Face-o-mat performance, where Tobias Gutmann will be present to draw portraits of people, as well as a two-month Face-o-mat Atelier. Here, visitors will be able to experience Face-o-mat from both sides, taking on the role of painter and painted. An online archive shows the variety of drawings created, creating the narrative of how people visiting the exhibition see each other.

“Face-o-mat means looking with curious eyes, listening and breathing, until I see the person behind a face. Before the drawing begins, I wait until my preconceptions about a person start to disappear. It takes courage to look into someone's eyes, or let someone look into my eyes. It takes time to grasp the person. In everyday life we often don’t look at each other long enough to really see the person we encounter. It takes a deeper kind of seeing, to look past the façade, past visual aspects that are like a mask, covering the unique personality of each and every human being. How would our world look like if we would not only be connected globally through digital devices, but would take the time to connect through conscious, everyday face-to-face encounters?” - Tobias Gutmann