Artist Talk: Johannes Vogl

As part of the first edition of the “Deniz Villaları: Ecological Crossings” program, realized through the collaboration of Institut Français İzmir, Goethe-Institut İzmir, and ESİAD – İzmir European Union Information Centre, the artist Johannes Vogl, selected through an open call, was in residence at StudioMAHAL from October to December 2025.

An artist talk with Vogl took place on Monday, December 8.

During the talk, Vogl shared the production process of his project “Summer Rain,” developed as part of his work at StudioMAHAL, as well as his broader approach to artistic practice.

Johannes Vogl is an artist based in Berlin whose sculptural and installation practice is shaped through objects from everyday life. Working with mechanical systems, light, and movement, he detaches ordinary objects from their original functions, endowing them with new behaviors and forms of existence. For Vogl, something becomes sculpture once it becomes “tangible”; therefore, the boundaries between material and idea are in constant transformation in his work.

His works make visible the tension between technology and nature, function and play, turning machines and simple tools into almost living characters. In this way, the viewer is invited to reconsider perception within a strange and poetic atmosphere created by familiar objects. In Vogl’s practice, the core concern is the experience generated by the object itself: an open-ended encounter that reorganizes space, time, and sensation.