Even as a young boy, Stefan Rohrer (*1968) was infatuated with cars and scooters. During his childhood, numerous VW Beetles could still be seen driving through the streets of his hometown of Göppingen.

Studying at the Stuttgart Art Academy, Rohrer embraced his childhood obsessions and turned motor vehicles into his raw material. Cars, scooters, motorbikes are the fetishes of the mobile multi-option society. They are fast; they are beautiful, and they are versatile.

The vehicles the artist works with are all imbued with desires, energies and forces. Rohrer seizes on the dynamic movement of their constituent parts, materialising and extending it out of the object and into space. Speed becomes a metal loop. Cars blossom as they explode, components fly apart, movement becomes a whiplash dance ribbon.

A firework of paint and colour. The viewer cannot help but be reminded of comic book sounds: “Crash”, “Wow”, “Booooom” ...

Text: Dr. Tobias Wall

I find it great that I am allowed to express some secret loves under the guise of art.

Stefan Rohrer, 2023