FOTO: © Photo: Jens Ziehe, Berlin

renata lucas - short cut

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

neugerriemschneider is pleased to present Renata Lucas’ solo exhibition short cut. In this presentation, Lucas builds upon competing notions of contemplative, intangible interaction and its quantifiable valuation, inviting viewers to actively participate in a coin-operated installation that rethinks the conditions of attention and processes of interpretation. With each deposit, the phrase “THANK YOU” appears for a brief instant before becoming deactivated. Its Portuguese-language counterpart “DE NADA” stands across the space, serving as the backdrop for falling coins and the pile in which they accumulate. Together, the work captures a minimal, circular action that complicates messaging while questioning the very act of looking and its commodification.

Interrogating concepts of perception on scales both grand and intimate, Lucas’ practice is centered on the psychological implications of space, its design and what it contains. She draws on sociocultural mores, subconscious preconditioning, codes of conduct and the behavioral influence of one’s surroundings to create interventions that subvert expectations. Finding their sites at busy intersections, on sidewalks or across cityscapes, her works address both hyperlocal and global histories to guide new approaches to interpreting once-familiar environments. By invigorating situations through seemingly happenstance encounters, Lucas deconstructs boundaries, and in turn, fosters new channels of connection.

short cut (2023) draws inspiration from the coin-operated lighting occasionally found in churches, momentarily illuminating a particular painting once a tithe is deposited. Here, a simplified plinth stands within the gallery space, sculptural in its presence, awaiting a monetary prompt. This simple, transactional exchange, triggering the message “THANK YOU” in an adjacent room akin to a church’s niche, is direct and without pretext, relying on its context to inform - or complicate - its utility. Despite its seemingly innocuous role, this system’s temporal link problematizes the visibility it initially enables. Functioning as a timer, it by nature transforms one’s experience of seeing: The intent, scrutinizing, unimpeded gaze that a work of art demands is now assigned a precisely defined constraint, creating an imposed, time-bound barrier to a vital sense.

In this work, the gesture of viewing - an innately physical one generally enabled, at no cost, by the human body’s own facilities - becomes moderated by an external force. Reversing this act, it is here ascribed a value, and as currency is added, duration increases proportionally. Reliant on user input, its start and end points predetermined, short cut exists as a complete work nearly entirely in the present moment, with its past seemingly limited to the period elapsed since its illumination. The mechanism provides for stark immediacy

that in turn gives way to a conceptual and practical loop. Opposite the projected message, coins drop from above, indistinguishable at first glance from those deposited, landing below the static text “DE NADA.”
In concert, the paired actions and statements feed curiosity stoked by their inscrutability and capacities for rebalancing social dynamics. Lucas’ creation exists only in a brief moment, able to be reliably recalled,

on demand, at the drop of a coin.

Renata Lucas (b. 1971) has been the subject of international solo exhibitions, including those at Performance Space New York, New York (2019); Peep-Hole, Milan (2011); Secession, Vienna (2014); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2010); Redcat, Los Angeles (2007) and Gasworks, London (2007). She has created site-specific works also for the 8th biennale internationale d’art contemporain de Melle, Melle (2018); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012); the 12th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2011); the 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice (2009) and the 27th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo (2006). She was the recipient of the Absolut Art Award (2013); the Dena Foundation Art Award (2009) and the Schering Stiftung Art Award (2009). Renata Lucas lives and works in São Paulo.

Location

neugerriemschneider Linienstraße 155 10115 Berlin

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