SuTö

• I was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1967. At Pforzheim University I studied Creative Communication and Brand Management. After graduating I worked as client service manager in a top-ranked advertising agency. Other career changes resulted in me becoming a product manager and finally a strategic market development manager in the consumer goods industry. I lived in Paris and in Frankfurt, travelled all over Europe, Canada and parts of Africa and as I always have had a passion for art, I visited art museums and art galleries wherever I found an appealing collection or exhibition. I loved Rodin’s sculptures, Yves Klein’s studies of Blue and Jean Tinguely’s kinetic objects. Similarly I adored Nikki de Saint Phalle’s shooting paintings and sculpture gardens and I became a fan of Sophie Calle, a contemporary French writer, photographer and conceptual artist. Klein, Tinguely, Saint Phalle and Calle all seemed to have great fun bringing their ideas to life. The vitality, wit, irony, poetry and sometimes tragedy emanating from their works resonated with me. This experience moulded my concepts of what modern art should do with its audience. I dreamed of following in their footsteps - only I never had the time. Then came the break, the decision to leave my interesting job and home, to buy a boat and to sail around the world. My partner and I left friends and family behind for three years. We departed Wiesbaden, Germany, on the banks of the river Rhine on July 5th, 2011. Four weeks later I shot the first photos that became the foundation of the work “digital geocaches”. I didn’t know then that this was the beginning of a creative journey that has brought me to where I am today. The first public viewing of my artwork was held in July 2014 in Nelson, New Zealand.
• www.susannetoelzel.com