To exist within the speculative worlds depicted in Robert Langenegger’s paintings is to inhabit spaces of elegy and anomaly. These worlds are lost, abandoned, and depleted—yet no attempts at correction are made. Instead, they reveal the vast potential of their continued, though inevitably doomed, existence. Langenegger's artistic vision does not dream of a utopian future nor engage in prescriptive idealism. Rather, it presents an unflinching portrayal of hard truths within hypothetical realities. In his work, he conjures an imagined habitat, an invented tribe, residing somewhere deep within the Amazon, where the iconic jungle transforms into a graphic allegory for themes of consumption, colonization, and conversion.

In Visionary Position, Langenegger presents six paintings set within these parallel universes, an exploration of his mind’s creations grounded in scientific observations and depictions. He begins with the assumption that the creatures of the forest are beset with exceptional hurdles as they struggle to survive in their unique environments. For instance, a dead capybara, its face partially skinned while protecting its young from predators, or a pair of coatis grappling with poison dart frogs and other exotic plants while foraging. These narratives, though episodic and curious in appearance, emerge from a deeper hypothesis rooted in the laws of nature and other scientific conjectures. The visual depictions in Langenegger’s work become illustrations for these thought experiments, exploring existence within a primitive world, populated by creatures and virgin tribes.

In his own words:

“The color of the frogs reminded me of candy. I was fascinated by the epiphytes that colonize the canopy. In this case, they have descended to the forest floor due to the collapse of their host’s branch. They will slowly wither away in the darkness and become fertilizer for the trees that dominate the space. The cycle of growth and decay once again manifests.”

While there is a reference to morbidity in this process, Langenegger exposes a hard reality that is seldom depicted. In his world, beauty, youth, bright colors, and innocence are often indicators of the cycle of life and death—unavoidable truths that resonate wherever life exists.

In another painting, a lost tapir is found by its mother after it accidentally wanders into a man-made laboratory for illicit substances. This is the kind of imaginative synthesis Langenegger offers: a fusion of worlds that are both unimaginable and yet disturbingly close to truth. The once-pristine jungle becomes the source of humanity's quest to extract its ancient powers through substances and illicit drugs. Langenegger’s world does not shy away from depicting the atrocities committed against the exotic: how the human world has industrialized the forest's secrets, with consequences for the creatures who call it home.

At its core, Langenegger’s work is set in the future. The army’s encounter with the tribes, the shaman’s rituals—all of these scenes depict a world where the ‘domestication’ process has begun. Langenegger describes it: “It is like a vision of the future, where the tribe eventually becomes part of the global network of humanity. By this time, half would probably succumb to violence and disease, while the other half would work for their colonizers, earn money, and buy commodities—ultimately propagating the new system imposed on them.”

These dark and chilling portrayals are laden with Langenegger's political commentary on the state of nature and forests. The insignia of fascism, the ominous scale of the army against the natives, the bones of the dead and the shamanistic sacrifices, have all become part of this potboil of confusion on how to navigate survival and greed. Through his work, he invokes a kind of melancholic sentiment for the untouched tribes and creatures of a world once perceived as ‘pure.’ When these paintings are viewed collectively, they form an overarching narrative—one that asks: Aren’t we all complicit in this destruction?

Langenegger’s choice to focus on the Amazon prompts him to reflect on the seeming randomness of his subject matter: “Out of all the infinite possibilities of what to paint, I was eventually led to this. Perhaps it's because Amazon is a giant company that shapes the consumer population, or because the Amazon jungle is vanishing at an unprecedented rate. But I will never know, and it doesn't matter. What interests me is the metamorphosis of the idea into something that will be viewed in the context of the gallery. In the simplest sense, this will be considered art.”

In this sense, Langenegger moves on to another important question on how art can penetrate its own untouched and seemingly lush qualities that might become mere curiosity for the viewer. Like an endangered idea in itself, the painting for Robert is nothing different to manual labor where he occupies a front seat to the whole creative process, and not too removed from the process of foraging for new ideas and to the possibility while doing so—of endangering oneself when one encounters a kind of systemic colonial and consumerist force.

Visionary Position is yet another testament to Langenegger’s unique ability to construct theoretical worlds that are rarely seen through such an uninhibited perspective. These worlds—both fictional and historically grounded—form parallel universes rich in meaning, brimming with possibilities. They are jungles inhabited by both men and beasts, and they serve as a tribute to the almost forgotten craft of storytelling through pictures.

– Cocoy Lumbao Jr.

Robert Langenegger (b. 1983, St. Gallen, Switzerland; lives and works in Manila, Philippines) creates cartoonish narratives that aim to turn the aesthetics of “high art” completely upside down. He combines extremely confronting humor, carnal excess, body fluids and unclean protagonists to show us the corruption, selfishness, vanity and sexual depravity that underlie and pervert our modern life. Themes range from sex tourism in Asia to global class warfare, the hypocrisy of organized religion, racism, and consumerism. In works with humorous, rambling titles, Langenegger depicts a drugged-addled character who’s domestic threat is ambiguous. Elsewhere, the artist pokes fun at the strange bedfellows that work together to keep the global capitalism machine moving. His heavily laden paintings deal with the social deformities from his home city Manila.