Philip Topolovac

In his projects, which at first glance appear heterogeneous, Philip Topolovac analyzes the conditions under which we perceive reality and questions the meaning we assign to what we perceive. What is real? What is historically conditioned? What do we evaluate according to its value? Is our world truly as we have learned to imagine it? For the artist, the creation of art is a process that primarily takes place in the mind of the viewer – perception as projection and interpretation is a central theme in many of his works. The aim of this publication is therefore to trace the common thread running through Topolovac’ s work. The world as a model, the artwork as a prop – this central aspect of his practice is also reflected in his most recent series » Prophets« (2025), in which » ecstatic« facial imprints of Baroque clay models for saint figures are transformed into lifelike head sculptures made of Styrofoam and modeling compound. As a sculptural work, he has also recreated a concrete column (2023), originally from the beer garden of Berghain, repurposed as a fountain. In recent years, Philip Topolovac has moreover succeeded in building an extensive collection of war-damaged objects, which he has salvaged from construction sites in Berlin. The numerous postwar wastelands along the former Wall strip and in the divided remnants of the city have been intensively developed since reunification. This real estate boom opens only a narrow window into the city’ s dramatic past, from which traces of Berlin’ s widespread wartime destruction repeatedly emerge. The debris intended for disposal seems to surface from the ground like elements from the city’ s subconscious. From a similar context – though markedly more dreamlike – emerges the work » Orpheus« : a weathered head presented as a floating sculpture in a Berlin lake, accompanied at intervals by arias from Gluck’ s opera » Orfeo ed Euridice« (1762). In Topolovac’ s work, tragedy drawn from myth and reality consistently merges into surreal, shifting images, reflecting the very genesis of this book.