LUCERNE.- Giulia Piscitelli (*1965) and Clemens von Wedemeyer (*1974) see their art in a social context. The two artists adopt a committed stance, and their works address the global movements of human beings, ideas and goods. Piscitelli’s objects and images and von Wedemeyer’s videos and artistic research examine the mechanisms by means of which a society facilitates or prevents access. Nella società, in Gesellschaft (in Society) is conceived as a loose dialogue between these two positions.

Giulia Piscitelli reflects, through memory, time, physicality and work, on the conflictual encounter between the political and the individual dimension. The Italian artist is inspired by everyday life in Naples, by materials and impressions gained by the roadside or at the market, as it were. She frequently takes up and transforms everyday items and in doing so combines objects of great symbolic force. For example, she covered seats in a Catholic confession box with Islamic prayer mats. Una nuvola come tappeto (2019), the title of the work which will be on show for the first time in Luzern, points to a link and a contradiction between salvation and scaremongering, but also to parallels between religions. By contrast, Spica (2011) links means of payment with grain. That is to say, the ears of corn Giulia Piscitelli paints using bleach on silk all come from bank notes and coins of various currencies. By using bleach as her means of drawing, the artist interweaves the process of creation and destruction, while at the same time speaking of frightfulness, sedentariness, old myths, trade, and the often fatal links between capital and food.

Clemens von Wedemeyer adopts historical perspectives in order to reflect on the present day. For the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Luzern, the German artist uses Elias Canetti’s classic book Crowds and Power as a foil for exploring how the masses are channelled in society today. He has also made a new film in Lucerne – for which we sought extras at the beginning of this year. Faux Terrain (2019) is about a young woman whose identity remains unclear. A long period of isolation has rendered her speechless and alienated her from the world. In Lucerne she visits places that link the Swiss past and present: the Bourbaki panorama, the Kunstmuseum Luzern and civil defence installations. Psychologically isolated, she tries to avoid the eyes of the crowd until finally she is absorbed into the pictorial world of the screen in her hand. Another 2019 work addresses the theme of group dynamics: for 70.001 von Wedemeyer transfers the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig in 1989 into virtual space. In this way he links past and present, reality and fiction, and ask whether the world would be a better place if it were steered by computer algorithms instead of political decision-makers, or whether that would be a kind of techno-fascism.

curated by Fanni Fetzer