Klara Lidén
Untitled (gute Laune) (2015)
Trained first as an architect then as an artist, the New York/Berlin-based Klara Lidén is hyper-tuned to the body/building ratios of the places she inhabits, seeing, for example, the total potential of disused urban lots as clearly as the bureaucratic violence of planned “green” space. This awareness is manifested in her work not least by the elements that her various installations, sculptures, and videos tend to hold in common: the surrounding area, a human presence, immediately available materials, and bodily force. For this issue of Texte zur Kunst, Lidén has produced “Untitled (gute Laune),” which takes old GDR pavers as material support, their tops bearing the accumulation of scum and wear. In making the piece, Lidén spray-painted the stones in one go with a neon-pink stripe, as a construction crew might to mark the underlying infrastructure of a road before tearing it up. Once dispersed, the pavers remain materially linked by this shared line. But Lidén’s art might best be thought of as real world objects hiding out – détourned “useful” things that could easily change back. In this case, a rock is ultimately rock, as helpful for reinforcing the ground underfoot as it is, held in hand, for asserting resistance. With this edition, it could be said that the street itself is redistributed, parceled out for aesthetic contemplation. And yet should a reason come about, the potential remains for further re-use.
Spray paint on cobblestone, ca. 10 x 10 x 10 cm, edition: 100 + 20 A.P., numbered and signed on the bottom.