REGGIE VOIGTLÄNDER

Foundations of Interaction

My artistic practice revolves around the interaction between space, materials, and human experience. Through installation art, I explore themes of identity, borders, power structures, and collective memory—examining how external influences shape our perceptions and realities. You can also explore my website to discover how my installations connect with painting, performance, video, digital art, and photography—everything is linked.

The foundation of my installation work was laid during a student exchange at the art academy in Berlin, where I stayed on an Erasmus grant. Instead of engaging in conventional lithography—an already mastered technique that lacked excitement—I immersed myself in the Lohmühler Wagenburg, an alternative community in Kreuzberg. At the time, this space occupied the former Berlin Wall site near Görlitzerpark, later transformed into a cultural hub. Painting outdoors and integrating found materials into my work, I instinctively began tracing my surroundings, a practice reminiscent of childhood memories—drawing outlines of ‘my’ house in the sand.

This interaction with the urban landscape and its inhabitants sparked conversations about history, memory, and political shifts. It shaped my approach to art, inspiring installations that merge physical space with human narratives. My first total installation, 'Triple Jump' (1996), exemplified this concept—bridging inside and outside spaces using light and sound to create a dynamic interplay. This work marked the beginning of a series exploring identity within geopolitical frameworks, initially drawing connections to events in Srebrenica and the transformations in post-communist Eastern Europe.

Tracing Invisible Connections

Later, in ‘Air’ (2011), I expanded upon the theme of spatial interaction, eliminating physical objects entirely to create an immersive environment. Visitors experienced a simulated exterior within an enclosed space, making the concept of ‘borders’ tangible through presence alone.

The idea that everything is interconnected—without true beginnings or endings—continues to inform my approach. Borders and separations exist as constructs rather than absolute truths. My first residency in 2014 at the Chinese European Art Center (CEAC) in Xiamen, China, allowed me to further develop these ideas. I presented ’40 Titles’, my first total installation, later expanding its scope at Cacaofabriek Expo in Helmond in 2015.

Connection plays a vital role in my installations, which incorporate multiple elements across diverse media. Adapting two-dimensional works or video into spatial environments presents challenges, but site-specific materials evolve with each context. A defining example was the pink Chinese clotheslines introduced in my residency at CEAC—initially used to draw lines in public spaces and later transformed into a cubic structure within the gallery, inspired by Buddhist temple architecture. This organic integration of materials and environments remains central to my practice.

The Politics of Presence

Beyond spatial exploration, my art is deeply political. Extensive research and openness to unforeseen paths shape each project, with recurring objects—such as furniture—serving as touchpoints rather than aesthetic repetitions. Themes rooted in personal experience merge with broader historical realities, as seen in 'Time Table With Memory Holes' (2015), a sculptural video installation exploring memory, erasure, and shifting narratives.

This work originated from a childhood recollection—a photograph depicting men in Nazi uniforms at a dinner table, deliberately altered to remove their emblems. This act of erasure became the conceptual basis for an animated projection on a perforated table, where shifting patterns obscure direct recognition. Only the light-defined circular forms remain constant, reinforcing a connection between space, time, and perception. Meaning emerges intermittently as viewers engage with the work, underscoring the fragility of historical memory and its continuous reconstruction.

My installations transform environments, creating immersive spaces that invite dialogue and reflection—blurring the boundaries between past and present, absence and presence, seen and unseen.

The Politics of Presence conveys the idea that physical presence—whether of a body, an object, or a memory—holds significance within a broader sociopolitical context. My installations engage with history, erasure, and shifting narratives, making presence an active force rather than a passive state.
In my work, presence is shaped by absence. For example, in Time Table With Memory Holes, the missing elements in a family photograph became the conceptual foundation for exploring how history is rewritten and obscured. This installation does not simply depict memory—it actively engages with its fragility and reconstruction, inviting viewers to become part of the narrative through interaction.

My approach to space, materials, and historical reflection challenges conventional structures of perception. Presence, then, becomes political not because I dictate what is seen, remembered, or acknowledged, but because it influences how these elements take shape. By creating immersive environments where viewers navigate and interpret fragmented histories, my installations position presence as a critical tool for questioning power, identity, and collective memory. Rather than imposing a single narrative, my installations create spaces where presence and absence shape perception. I set the conditions in which viewers engage with history, memory, and erasure, allowing them to experience how narratives evolve and shift over time.
My work opens a dialogue instead of offering fixed conclusions. By making absence as tangible as presence, I raise questions about what is remembered, forgotten, and reinterpreted. Viewers play an active role in this process, becoming aware of how perception is influenced by what is revealed or concealed. In this way, presence in my installations becomes political—not because I personally dictate meaning, but because the work highlights the mechanisms through which memory, history, and perception are shaped. My installations provide a framework where viewers engage with absence and presence, recognizing how narratives are constructed and altered over time. The political aspect emerges from these interactions, revealing how historical perception is continually reshaped—not necessarily by me, but by the conditions and structures that I expose through my work.

Site (or event) specific

I welcome external influences as part of the process, so my installations are frequently site or event-specific. My installations do not exist in isolation; they interact with their surroundings, spatial context or certain themes. Shaped by artistic intention, they relate place, making the work uniquely attuned to its setting.
A clear example is Position IV, a sculptural installation of red clothing that unfolded over three months in a former Catholic mission chapel—now an art space visible day and night, inherently linked to the public realm. Position IV existed within a space that carried layers of historical and cultural significance, allowing these associations to be part of the viewer’s experience. Its visibility in a public-facing art space meant encounters with the work were not uniform, and perception shifted depending on time, context, and perspective. Structured as a series of staged moments, Position IV refused fixity—each phase redefined perception, much like film stills that freeze individual moments while implying movement beyond the frame. By introducing figures gradually, the installation changed not only its internal dynamics but also its relationship with the chapel itself, allowing the space to actively shape meaning rather than serve as a neutral backdrop.
This approach runs through much of my work: site and context are not merely settings but frequently act as active forces, shaping interpretation, transformation, and engagement.

Beyond Engagement: Art as a Catalyst for Transformation

With Maria Was Here, I first introduced direct activism into my work. Rooted in historical imagery, the sculptural video installation recontextualised Lucas Gassel’s Escape to Egypt, bringing Maria into contemporary discourse as a child bride caught in systemic oppression. The work didn’t just evoke awareness—it facilitated tangible action, raising funds for Plan International’s Stop Child Marriages campaign, with €600 donated during its initial presentation at Cacaofabriek Helmond.
This marked a turning point in my practice. Interaction, which had previously served to deepen engagement, was now transforming into an active agent for change.

Family Fountain builds on this shift, integrating mental coaching and artistic expression into a unified experience where visitors are invited to not only reflect but engage in a process of inner recognition and empowerment. That way I initiated a unique and new direction in which my artistic practice and mental coaching come together. This installation expands upon interactive engagement in my previous works, evolving into a truly activist component where experience not only invites reflection but actively supports transformation.

Emerging from artistic research about the family fountain as a metaphor for the family system, Family Fountain moves beyond symbolic representation into direct engagement, offering visitors a space to explore their inner world in relation to the tangible and social structures surrounding them. This process of recognition, inspection, and exchange echoes my ongoing exploration of site and context, but here, interaction becomes a tool for empowerment rather than mere observation.

As part of the larger Family Fountains project, Family Fountain demonstrates how art can be both a personal and collective catalyst—one that doesn’t just create awareness but fosters real change in the way people navigate personal and societal dynamics. The installation facilitates direct involvement, turns dialogue into action, contemplation into transformation. This expanded approach underscores the intersection of art and personal development, showing how installations can be both spaces for reflection and catalysts for real-world change.