The Florence Biennale is awarding the ‘Lorenzo il Magnifico’ Special Award from the President to Tim Bengel for his original fusion of a reminiscence of Tibetan mandalas with Western figuration and new technologies, sharing his work with a vast international audience, which has both enthused and inspired. As a guest artist at the biennial he will realise two of his works live, Rome Monument and Floral Freedom.
One of his performances open to the public will take place on Saturday, 14 October at 11 a.m. in the Spadolini Pavilion.
Born in Ostfildern, near Stuttgart, on 31 December 1991, Tim Bengel studied art and philosophy at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
He is known for his multimedia works, which combine performance, live painting and video. He creates two-dimensional images by applying gold leaf and black and white sand to the surface treated with an adhesive, as seen in Versailles. Once he has completed his creative process with those materials, he places the canvas vertically in front of the audience, which he engages in an emotional experience. He preserves the memory of that moment, as well as the process by filming the action to make a video, which he shares with over 250 million people via social media.
As Sanja Haupt pointed out, ‘the idea of filming himself in a video to offer a view of his unique technique allowed Bengel to present his art in a way that particularly suited to the internet and the digital revolution because it offers a visual experience that culminates in an atmosphere of revelation’.
In 2009 and 2012, he won the 1st Prize for Art at the school Kunst aus den eigenen Reihen in Nuertingen (Germany). In 2011, he won the Jugenddesignwettbewerb Hessnatur in Frankfurt and subsequently won 1st Prize at the Artward International Event in Munich (2014) and 1st Prize at Art Expo Malaysia (2016).
