Vera Lutz

In this exhibition, Vera Lutz presents the work series Verdunkelungssystem (Blackout System) (2023) that she has designed especially for this venue. This title can be taken literally, as these relief-like wall objects are made of different curtain rail systems. The works of this series should all be seen as autonomous in their own right, but they also all react to the given architecture of the rooms and galleries where they are shown.

These blackout systems are an attempt to design a group of works around the idea of what is not visible, and they also play with the concept of concealment. In art history, there has been a long-standing and complex debate around the theme of showing and hiding, and this is above all connected to the act of self-reflection using artistic means. While artworks often attempt to mediate messages via pictures, the structures of showing or the infrastructures required for this usually remain invisible. We only perceive these when they do not work properly. In Lutz’s work this constellation rather operates the other way around, creating an image or metaphor that attempts to transport as little message as possible or even to be an empty vessel. Here it is the structures of concealment (and not just the cover behind which something is concealed) that are shown in the form of an installation, clearly displaced as isolated objects and only slightly staged in an arrangement while remaining almost entirely devoid of further comment. The individual components of this sculptural installation derive from the DIY store and are industrial mass products made of plastic or metal that are then developed into artworks by the artist in her studio. This often takes place via a strategy of combination. Lutz does not undertake large interventions into the individual components but rather develops a new form of installation using the industrial materials.

The specific placing of the works is often motivated by an interest in the periphery of the exhibition space. The artist attempts to include the doors, corners, and walls and to base her use of space on the rooms’ main axes. In appearance and position these works do not stand out, but instead remain innocuous, and sometimes even only accessible with some difficulty. A picture that the artist herself often uses for this is the invisible house that refers to completely mirrored skyscrapers, which instead of creating a form for themselves reflect their surroundings as a (distorted) image.

The work series Verdunkelungssystem (Blackout System) seem to be closely focused on precisely this design principle, both in linguistic and material terms. They are in a way made in order to be a vehicle for thinking about the visible, the non-visible, and the invisible. Within this intellectual game, the question arises as to the function of art in a double sense — on the one hand the question as to how art can be produced within which framework, so as to be seen as art, and on the other hand the question of its social significance.

This approach remains in laconic and poetic ways very open, and does not attempt any answer to these questions raised, but is satisfied with leaving us with them. In the context of the whole exhibition, we see the frequent use of materials that are displaced and redesigned not only as materials but also linguistically. These materials correspond to their own meanings, and they turn the linguistic energy that they themselves bear to the outside. 


Verdunkelungssystem, 2023
Curtain rails, aluminum
c. 360 × 330 × 5 cm
Courtesy FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna