Let’s dare to do it! To take a look behind the “curtain of our life.” What do we discover? “Demons” that apparently toy with us according to their whims.

In his “Dämonentheater,” Michael Vonbank conveys insights into the riveting spectacle of inner transformation. In a permanent oscillation between human, animal and demonic states of being, his chimaeras or grotesques investigate the backgrounds of our existence.

Michael Vonbank traces individual and collective “demons” through painting and sculpture. In installation, photographs and videos, he takes up social-collective “demons” from migration and religion. In ancient Greece, daimon stood for an inner power upon which we are intently focused, because it is what constitutes our inner identity. Daimonion designated an inner voice serving to help make decisions. The archetypes in Vonbank’s oeuvre bring us into connection with our own “demons.” The spirits that we summon up call back to us. This dialogical tension gives rise to the enormous energy that suffuses his works.