Roman Signer’s action sculptures look like scientific experiments. Carefully planned. Disciplinedly executed. Analytically documented. At the centre are everyday objects: umbrellas, helmets, barrels, shoes, chairs, cars, candles and balloons. In his laboratory, which consists of a studio or the Swiss and northern Italian mountains, he lets them explode and collide.
The results, documented on film, Signer refers to as sculptures. Works created through controlled destruction. Consisting of ephemeral forms, humorous events and the poetic transformation of things over time.
Roman Signer is considered one of the leading representatives of process and conceptual art. His work has been exhibited in a large number of museums around the world and has been shown at the Venice Biennale, Documenta 8 and Skulptur Projekte Münster, among others.
Roman Signer was born in 1938 in Appenzell, Switzerland. He lives and works in St. Gallen, Switzerland.