Tobias Putrih

Source: https://act.mit.edu/about/people/tobias-putrih/ Parent: https://act.mit.edu/people/categories/instructors/

Profile

An urge to map the rift between concrete, built environments and their digital production tools, interfaces, or simulations forms the core of Tobias Putrih’s art practice. It invites the viewer to reevaluate the spaces and objects defined by the utopian and visionary concepts of architecture and design, examining public venues—cinemas, libraries, galleries, and a university commons, and their transformation in the face of industrial optimization and reimagining them through their opposite—hands-on model making and experimental fabrication.

Many of Putrih’s projects are collaborative, conceived in conversation with architects, filmmakers, designers, scientists, and computer programmers. The artworks become proposals or purely conceptual models. Temporary environments and objects are constructed from fugitive materials such as cardboard or paper or through precise handling of manufactured materials like Styrofoam and plywood.

Putrih’s work was presented with solo shows at museums worldwide—Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen, Rotterdam; Fondazione Prada, Milan; MIT List Center, Cambridge, Kunsthaus Zurich, and Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, Centre Pompidou, Paris and Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. The most important group exhibitions he participated in include TRACK, Smak, Ghent, Forms of Resistance, VanAbbe Museum, Eindhoven, Manifesta 4, Frankfurt, and the 29th Sao Paulo Biennale. In 2007, he represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennale. The major published works include three monographs—in 2007, published by JPRingier; in 2012, by Haus Konstruktiv; and in 2022, by HatjeCantz.

His work is included, among others, in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’ Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen, Rotterdam and Sprengel Museum, Hannover.

Tobias Putrih, International, Šiška, 2010. Cardboard, plaster walls, OSB boards, plywood, LED lights. Dimensions variable. Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Photo Georges Mèguerditchian. Courtesy the artist

Tobias Putrih, Brick Transfer, 2016. Plywood, paper, metal, bricks. Site specific installation at Fondazione Prada, Milan. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani. Fondazione Prada Collection

Tobias Putrih, Macula (Series B), 2006. Cardboard, archival PVA glue. Photograph by Eli Ping. Studio installation view. Private collections.

Tobias Putrih in the MIT Mars Lab.

[### Foundations in Art, Design and Spatial Practices (Spring 2026)

4.302](https://act.mit.edu/academics/courses/foundations-in-art-design-and-spatial-practices-spring-2026/)

[### Art, Culture, and Technology Studio & Thesis Colloquium (Fall 2025)

4.390](https://act.mit.edu/academics/courses/art-culture-and-technology-studio-fall-2025/)

[### Advanced Workshop in Artistic Practice and Transdisciplinary Research (Fall 2025)

4.314 U / 4.315 G](https://act.mit.edu/academics/courses/advanced-workshop-in-artistic-practice-and-transdisciplinary-research-fall-2025/)

[### Foundations in Art, Design and Spatial Practices (Spring 2025)

4.302](https://act.mit.edu/academics/courses/4-302-foundations-in-art-design-and-spatial-practices/)

[### Foundations in Art, Design and Spatial Practices (Spring 2024)

4.302](https://act.mit.edu/academics/courses/foundations-in-art-design-and-spatial-practices-spring-2024/)

[### Advanced Projects in Art, Culture, and Technology (Fall 2023)

4.373 / 4.374](https://act.mit.edu/academics/courses/advanced-projects-in-art-culture-and-technology-fall-2023/)

[### Reza Negarestani | Modeling as Tektological Praxis

December 8](https://act.mit.edu/event/reza-negarestani-modeling-as-tektological-praxis/)

[### Tobias Putrih (with Ardalan SadeghiKivi): Order of Sweetness at Cukrarna Gallery

Exhibition](https://act.mit.edu/2024/08/tobias-putrih-with-ardalan-sadeghikivi-order-of-sweetness-at-cukrarna-gallery/)

[### Creative Collisions: Crossing the Art-Science Divide

AcademicsExhibition](https://act.mit.edu/2024/02/creative-collisions-crossing-the-art-science-divide/)

[### .zerodotzerozerozerozerozerozerozerozeroone Opening Panel and Exhibition

December 6](https://act.mit.edu/event/nano-opening-panel/)

[### eros feeding thanatos feeding (eros)

June 27–July 8](https://act.mit.edu/event/eros-feeding-thanatos-feeding-eros/)

[### zero.zerozerozerozerozeozerozerozeroone

May 27–October 1](https://act.mit.edu/event/zero-zerozerozerozerozeozerozerozeroone/)

[### Boundary Conditions: Architecture, Simulation, Cinema

November 12](https://act.mit.edu/event/boundary-conditions-architecture-simulation-cinema/)

[### Tobias Putrih: Perceptron at Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana

Exhibition](https://act.mit.edu/2021/04/tobias-putrih-perceptron-at-museum-of-modern-art-ljubljana/)

[### Futurity Island: Amphibian Pedagogies and Submerged Perspectives

September 6–7](https://act.mit.edu/event/futurity-island-amphibian-pedagogies-and-submerged-perspectives/)

[### Richard Sennett | The Good Craftsman

November 13](https://act.mit.edu/event/richard-sennett-the-good-craftsman/)

[### Tobias Putrih | Slight Agitation 1/4

October 20–January 22](https://act.mit.edu/event/tobias-putrih-slight-agitation-1-4/)

[### Tobias Putrih | Solar Limb / Routine Inspection

Publication](https://act.mit.edu/2015/12/tobias-putrih-solar-limb-routine-inspection/)