Interviewed in Vienna, 12 May 2013

Heinz Tesar defines his consistent and independent perspective regardless of the ever-changing trends and movements of the times. With his architectural statements, he is approaching artistic explorations in the media of language, drawing, watercolour and sculpture. His concept of wholeness is realized in the dialectical process between the aspirations of the individual and the community. A personal drama turns into a collective drama. Tesar’s anthropomorphic corpora are firmly anchored in their environments, not imposing themselves upon them, but rather interpreting them.

ORIS: Recently, on the occasion of your lecture in Piran, Slovenia, I was quite impressed by the fact that you were showing photographs you took in Italy when you were still a child. In this regard, I would like to point out two things: first, your respect for the very early stages of life, and secondly, references to sources and impulses that affect subsequent personality development. As it turns out, Italy, especially Venice, played a significant role in your life.

Tesar:  I don’t know about coincidences, but the fact is, at the age of twelve, I got to know Rome, Tuscany, the Etruscans. And I photographed what I saw with a small box camera. I also believe that it was all very formative. It is well known that, retrospectively, we reach for things that are important to us, and they are somewhere beyond and below the level of reason. It’s not only that these were my first architectural experiences, but getting to know the burial sites, the necropolises of the early periods, introduced me into a world different from the usual moving images. It’s these static images that leave an impression, precisely because of their static quality. They are static; they do not simulate any dimension of movement. The real bond between the architecture and the person experiencing it occurs when the observer himself brings these static images into a state of motion through his own movement. Thus, the observer himself is the actual generator of motion. The observer does not need any photographers; I came to realize that this is true not only for architecture, but also for sculpture. When you observe a particular building from various different positions, it creates a series of multiple static images. Thus, the experience of architecture is only possible in motion.