LUCERNE.- The exhibition Yellow Creature uses artistic concepts to explore the ethnic and moral categories that define borders between creatures and also within a society. Who draws these borderlines, who benefits from them and who negotiates and renegotiates them? Thematically, the exhibittion refers to the legendary show at the Kunstmuseum Luzern in 1974, Transformer— Aspekte der Travestie, which addressed the theme of the dissolution of gender roles, but takes the issue of borders and transitions into the 21st century.

The exhibition brings together numerous famous artists, including John Akomfrah (*1957, GH), who had a major appearance at Art Unlimited in 2017, was represented at numerous biennials around the world and winner of the 2017 Artes Mundi Prize, Mika Rottenberg (*1976, AR), who thrilled viewers at the 2015 Venice Biennale with her fantastic-humorous video, and Neïl Beloufa (*1985, FR), whose work was on show at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The ambiguous ceramic figures by Klara Kristalova (*1967, CZ), oscillating between becoming and being, are on show in Switzerland for the first time, and the sort films Green Porno by Isabella Rossellini (*1952, IT) introduce the sex life of insects and marine creatures into the museum. The ten national and international positions revolve around different strategies for overcoming borders, address the theme of transition and invite viewers to take another viewpoint. Yellow Creature aims to encourage visitors to encounter one another with empathy.

The exhibition takes its name, Yellow Creature, from the main figure in the picture book Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (1939) by Mervyn Peake (1911–1968, UK). That artist and author fathomed the borders between man and animal and man and woman by means of that yellow creature. The 45 original drawings tell readers about a puzzling figure with transformative shaman-like powers, a rough-and-ready pirate captain with a wild crew, about seafaring, adventures, an unequal couple and a happy ending: a controversial work to this very day.

By means of painterly-filmic or drawing tools, Klodin Erb (*1963, CH) and Sabian Baumann (*1962, CH) ask what it might be like to be a lemon that rolled out of a still-life painting, or a berry growing on a bush. In stories about flying cars and a wedding with a cow, Kempinski by Neïl Beloufa presents visions of the future on the periphery of Bamako (Mali). With the help of Hans Christian Andersen’s little mermaid, Lia García confronts these stories with the reality of life as a transgender women in Mexico City.

Empathy can be understood both poetically and politically: RELAX point to the fine borderlines marking value differences in the art world, in society, in everyday life and at work. The video installation The Unfinished Conversation by John Akomfrah is based on the archive of the art theorist Stuart Hall (1932–2014). Hall describes his thoughts on identity and ethnicity, racism, culture and political theory as an “unfinished conversation” and asks what it means to be different in any society. In a pointed, colourfully shrill and loud way, Mika Rottenberg addresses the theme of production processes in the capitalist system, and of work as an available commodity with winners and losers.

Curated by Fanni Fetzer