Tobias Bernstrup has been working internationally for twenty years and has been noted for his pioneering works influenced by computer games as well as his transgender musical performances. The future, technology, androgyny and queer aesthetics are reoccurring topics in Bernstrup's works which operate in the realm between the virtual and the real, with a fascination for the dystopian landscape which he throughout the years have explored in various media.
Read MoreBernstrup fuses historical references and events with fictional elements to critically examine our civilisation in which truth and fiction are closely intertwined. The optimism of the 20th century and the post-war era meet visions about the future and fictional dystopias from computer games. Bernstrup often uses modernistic architecture as models which point to both the utopian potential and the dystopian reverse of science.
Identity and self-presentation have always been central in Bernstrup's practice. By physically recreating his digital avatars in performances and images, Bernstrup has since the 1990's explored the division between the digital and the physical representation of the self and its transgressive, queer potential.
Tobias Bernstrup was born in 1970 in Gothenburg, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden. His work has been exhibited in major museums around the world, such as Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Lyon Biennale, Shanghai Duolun MoMA, The Gothenburg Museum of Art, Uppsala Art Museum, Cairo Biennale, MASS MoCA, Massachusetts, Miami MoCA, Utah MoCA, Salt Lake City and Basel Museum Für Gegenwartskunst.
Text courtesy Andréhn-Schiptjenko.
