Tobias Bernstrup

His video and live works are interconnected, however, while his videos focus on the extreme and exaggerated, his presence on the stage is a more modest physicality. His virtual world allows for one’s desires to be realized within the realms of the “game,” whereas on stage, Bernstrup's presence limits the viewer to his style and specificities. His external appearance of fetish and cross-dressing, including buckles and skin-tight rubber, is tame compared to transgressions of the individual.

In 1995 Bernstrup worked in close collaboration with artist Palle Torsson, receiving international recognition as among the first visual artists to use computer games in their art practice. Their project Museum Meltdown consisted of a series of site specific computer game installations in European art museums. Using the graphics engine of existing video games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake and Half-Life they transformed the museum architecture into violent first-person shooter games, allowing the museum visitor to wander around a virtual version of the museum killing people and blowing up masterpieces. Torsson and Bernstrup's early video game-based projects and game representations of museums have subsequently been followed up by other by artists such as Florian Muser & Imre Osswald, Felix Stephan Huber (Germany), Feng Mengbo (China) and Kolkoz (France).

Tobias Bernstrup (born 1970 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a contemporary artist working with videos, interactive works, live performances and electronic music. He received an MFA from Royal College University of Fine Arts Stockholm in 1998, where he also met up with artist colleague Palle Torsson.