As an innocent Swiss man, I discovered in my late 20s the genre of horror movies. Not the hard-core type of movies, but more in the area of John Carpenter’s productions. I fell in love with John Carpenter’s work, not only because of the stories and visuals but also the soundtrack he did himself for most of his movies. At that time, that was my source of inspiration. In the last 25 years of working, my inspiration constantly changed, which makes my art so diverse. However, at that time, I also realized that not many artists used horror esthetics in contemporary art. It was the prime time to bring new things into the art world, and the curators and critics welcomed it. There was no museum without a disco ball hanging somewhere. As in all my works, humor was essential; the horror was more on the funny side. And a little drama never hurts. The magazines would name me “Horror Breuning,” and I had interviews with horror specialists like H.R. Giger. It was a huge honor for me to meet him. Alien was on the top of my movie list, right after Carpenter. As it is in contemporary art, an artist sometimes hits the nail on its head without knowing – all of a sudden, I was in demand: I got galleries, shows, magazine articles, and money.

Today, those photos, films, and installations still resonate with me, not because they celebrate a horror esthetic more because they have an excellent way to tell a story in a dramatic appearance. They signal: be careful! Dangerous! But in the end, they make you smile after you look at them more closely. I always like it when my works are a mixed bag of communication to confuse the spectator.

All of my works should be memories of my past life. At this very moment, in the middle of my career, I like to remember how it was when I was younger and what the world was at that moment in time. It is different today.