About
I make art because I spent twenty years speaking for others and now it is my turn to speak for myself.
I come from commercial photography and directing. Before that, I trained as a printer. Craft is close to me. In 2022 I left commissioned work behind to build things that are my own. I have not stopped since. What I lack in formal training, I make up for with close observation and the willingness to learn any craft an idea demands.
I do not look for objects. They find me in everyday life. An object, a material, a life can already say enough. Without detours.
Often I combine several found objects. This lets me express complex feelings without a pointing finger. The viewer takes an impulse away. Sometimes it only takes effect later.
The find is only the beginning. Then I translate it into material. I solder and shape metal, sew fabric, take apart and repair mechanisms, saw and join wood. Before that come days of searching, research, thinking, sorting through my own feelings. Only at the end come the hours of my hands. The work does not show them.
I have no answers, but I create impulses.
CV
Sven Vollbrecht (born in West Berlin) lives and works in Berlin.
He works with sculpture, spatial installation, video and participatory formats. He turns everyday objects against their usual function and so makes the mechanisms of consumption, control and communication visible. He first worked as a photographer and director, and since 2022 he has devoted himself exclusively to fine art. He developed his practice as an autodidact.
He has exhibited at Haus am Kleistpark, Notagallery, PRACHTSAAL and RÄUME.ART, among other venues. In 2022 he showed the video installation Digital Void as part of Berlin Art Week at the former Tegel Airport, and in 2024 the sculpture Echo at Haus am Kleistpark. Increasingly he works in digital and public space. His project .COMpliance (2026), the performative return of the domain gallery-weekend-berlin.com as a golden readymade, has been covered by ZEITBLATT and bspoque, among others.
The works "Trust" and "#1" from the series Albtraum are in the private collection of Wilhelm Siebert, Berlin.
Two notes: Haus am Kleistpark now appears twice in the CV, in the venue list and again with Echo. I would drop it from the list. I also left Albtraum in German. For an English audience, "Nightmare" is an option, or you keep the German title and add the translation once in brackets.