Mongi Higgs

An idyll between archetype and irony – so true. With Oberschweinbach im August, artist Mongi Higgs creates a setting that moves between chamber play and nostalgic projection. The village world that unfolds from his dream seems like an echo of collective memories – a supposedly intact microcosm, permeated by the quiet irony of knowing that no idyll remains untouched. The series oscillates between styles, alternating between the romantic and the grotesque, lending the rural setting an almost theatrical density. Rural down-to-earthness and subtle melancholy meet here – a tension that can already be heard in works by Wilhelm Leibl or Franz von Stuck, but is refracted in a modern way. The figures, sometimes lovingly caricatured, sometimes psychologically nuanced, tell of desire, isolation and unfulfilled longing. Oberschweinbach becomes a projection surface – the name itself carries the ambivalence between comedy and reality Thus Oberschweinbach in August remains a reflection of the world – staged, utopian, but never naïve.

340 x 145 cm, Monotypie auf roher Leinwand, Acryl auf grundierter Leinwand.