Robert Spillner

Robert Spillner, born in Koblenz in the Rhineland region of south-western Germany, grew up with a fascination for mechanics, deeply felt already at an early childhood age. Consequently, Spillner found himself working for the automotive industry after graduating with degrees in engineering from the universities of Cologne and Bochum. „All I desired was to solve mechanical problems and invent new things,“ says Spillner of his life-long passion.

It was his creative mind that triggered Spillner’s study of the perfect motion of bee’s wings, not unlike Leonardo da Vinci and pushed by the same artistic drive: Spillner went on inventing kinetic machines that simulated the bee wing’s motion following nature’s example.

For the past twenty years and while pursuing a successful career in automotive engineering, Spillner created many elaborate and yet minimalist kinetic objects, which can be found in collections across Europe, Asia and the USA. Following the original spark of fusing engineering with art, Spillner in his studio and workshop in Düsseldorf creates those innovative machines deeply inspired by the patterns and mechanisms of nature, a ‘Deus ex Machine