Urs Lüthi
Just Another Story About Leaving
17 December, 2009–5 April, 2010
Opening: 16 December 2009, 7pm
Curated by: Luca Massimo Barbero and Elena Forin
Via Reggio Emilia 54, Roma
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MACRO is pleased tp present a solo exhibition of works by Urs Lüthi, the Swiss artist famous since the 1970s for his research on the idea of “Self” and on the ambiguities both of the individual and of the objects.
Lüthi has created and developed a special project for MACRO, where his works, the museum, and the city of Rome are all involved in a holistic vision that embraces the meaning of time and the themes of travel, departure, and return.
From 17 December 2009 to 5 April 2010 MACRO will pay homage to Urs Lüthi. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero and Elena Forin, and promoted by the City of Rome, Council of Culture and Communication – Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, this special exhibition concludes an year of great intensity for both the artist and the Museum. Following his exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Sammlung Falkenberg in Hamburg, Kunst Meran, and Villa Giulia in Verbania, and after receiving the Arnold Bode award at Documenta in Kassel, the solo show at MACRO is an opportunity for Lüthi to reflect on issues that have always been part of his artistic research, this time involving both the city and the Museum in an original and unique manner.
Just Another Story About Leaving, a title that symbolically recalls the idea of departure and separation, is a multiform project that includes both a two-room exhibition, specifically conceived for MACRO, and the artist’s personal journey through the various ages of the “Eternal City.”
By studying his own persona and his artistic self, Urs Lüthi has sought out places in the city where he can acquaint the present with the past, and where he can relate our time to the future. From these meditations the artist decided to bring another sculpture into the city of sculptures: Just Another Sculpture for Roma is a photographic project in which Lüthi reinterprets classical antiquity by installing a sculptural self-portrait in places of everyday life. The artist’s search of a place and a role ends at MACRO, the last stop on the sculptures ironic journey, where it becomes part of a larger reflection on the value of time. Lüthi transformed the exhibition rooms on the second floor into a single area, where the spectator will be able to face and process the issues and experiences put forward by the artist in each of his works, as memory, personal testimony, research, exploration, pain, and aloofness.
The photographs of Just Another Sculpture for Roma will be included in a catalogue published by Electa Mondadori, together with a selected anthology of the most important stages in Lüthi’s research, and a photographic section on the exhibition project. The catalogue will provide a sweeping overview of Lüthi’s work, originating with the artist’s personal vision for the exhibition. It will also include essays by Luca Massimo Barbero and Elena Forin, as well as a conversation between the artist and Christoph Lichtin.
Urs Lüthi was born in Krienz (Lucerne) in 1947.
He has lived in Munich since 1986, and has taught at Kassel University since 1994.
Lüthihad his first solo exhibition in 1966, and since then he has taken part in solo and group shows in many galleries in Italy and abroad.
He mounted a solo exhibition for the Swiss Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001 and he has shown his works in many museums, including the Basel Kunsthalle in 1976, the Kunstmuseum Bern in 1981, the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 1982, the Kunstverein München in 1987, the Bonner Kunstverein in 1993, the Galleria Civica di Modena in 1994, the Istituto Svizzero in New York and the Städthische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, in 2000, the Musée Rath in Geneva in 2002, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest in 2006.
The latest solo exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Luzern, Kunst Meran in Merano, and Sammlung Falkenberg in Hamburg (all in 2009) have been of great importance, as was the awarding of the Arnold Bode prize at Documenta, Kassel.
His many group exhibitions include Unter 40 at the Gallery of Modern Art in Basle, 1967, Giovane Arte Svizzera at the Rotonda della Besana in 1972, Transformer at the Kunstmuseum Luzern in 1974 and in 1975 at the Kunstmuseum Bochum, 13 Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil, in 1975, Malerei und Photographie im Dialog at the Kunsthaus in Zurich and Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977, exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1981, 1989, 1992, 1995, 2001, and 2005, Kunst mit Photographie at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1983, at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 1984, at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lyon and at the Fondation Cartier, Vitesse, in 1991, at the Galleria Civica di Modena in 1993, at the Seoul Biennale in 1995, at the Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel, and at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo in 1998, at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contamporain in Geneva and the Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena in 2001, at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale (Arizona) and the Bronx Museum of Contemporary Art in New York in 2002, at Villa Croce, Genoa, in 2004, Swiss video at Tate Modern, London, in 2006, and at the Kunstmuseum Luzern in 2008.
Via Reggio Emilia 54, Roma
Tuesday – Sunday 9 am-7 pm
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