Klara Lidén: Over out und above

Kunsthalle Zürich presents the first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland by Berlin-based artist Klara Lidén (b. 1979, Stockholm). Over out und above features new productions alongside earlier works offering insight into the artist's multi-layered working methods and her exploration of the physical, psychological and social boundaries of public and private space.

Lidén's artistic vocabulary ranges from architectural interventions in urban and institutional contexts to performative acts of resistance that challenge the collective and social fabric of urban space. The material appropriation of the surrounding environment is another central component of Lidén's practice as she stages its materials and urban fixtures in the exhibition space.

On the lower floor of Kunsthalle Zürich a constellation of sculptures reassembles an urban landscape. Square Moon, 2025, rises above the exhibition space like a lamppost, and is placed in dialogue with light boxes from which the artist has erased the original signage. With Untitled (Holes), 2025, Lidén continues to employ her principle of détournement: the works consist of drill cores—concrete cylinders that are sections of urban deep tissue: the underground strata of streets, walls and foundations. Their unassuming title also echoes Lidén’s own artistic strategy, a practice of reversal, removal and detachment running through her entire artistic oeuvre.

The fact that public space is not only materially coded, but also inherently performative, is made evident in Lidén's work Gang Gang Gang, 2025. The modular sculpture consists of temporary passageways as used to protect pedestrians near construction sites. Layers of graffiti, dirt and other signs of use are visible on the wooden panels, sections of which the artist has treated with reflective paint. This found architecture invites visitors to move through and around the elements and notice not only their otherwise unremarkable or obvious features, but also to consider how they are deployed everyday as a tool in the urban realm.

On the upper floor, the body as both the medium with agency to explore and the subject of spatial governance is also highlighted by the monolithic presence of the two closed cuboids Ring (Nuts) and Ring (Zomb), 2025. Made from building site fences, the large-scale sculptures are reminiscent of the reduced vocabulary of minimal art. Their placement at the entrance to the exhibition and the room’s two windows confronts visitors with questions of accessibility and exclusion, while creating hidden spaces—niches and corridors—for other works. Her ongoing series Untitled (Trashcan) is a collection of waste bins from various cities. While stripped of their original function, they still serve as portraits of their respective places of origin.

Finally, the artist's own physical presence takes centre stage in large-format slide projections. The handmade slides—inkjet-printed video stills transferred to clear acetate, cut by hand and mounted—which are projected onto the walls in various sizes, show Lidén enacting new performative actions realised for this exhibition. The coarse-grained black-and-white images document the artist’s slapstick-like attempts to break free from social rules and conventions. Whether walking across a Zurich weir, repairing her bicycle in Berlin or transporting her works through the streets—“the question of re-appropriating privatised, urban space always somehow begins with the body, its ways of moving and the temporalities it engages,” says Lidén.

Removed from their habitat—appropriated, displaced and put on view—, Lidén’s works themselves become like bodies or actors that the viewers are confronted with. Their existence, however, never concerns just the public urban space. Rather, they can also be understood in relation to institutional structures and conditions. After all, public space always arises where bodies are present—whether in urban space or the institutional context of the Kunsthalle Zürich.

Over out und above is curated by Fanny Hauser.

In early 2026 a monograph on Klara Lidén’s work will be co-published by Kunsthalle Zürich and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.

The exhibition is generously supported by philaneo. With particular thanks to Galerie Neu (Berlin), Sadie Coles HQ (London) and Reena Spaulings Fine Art (New York), as well as the Swedish Embassy, Bern, Zeppelin Rental GmbH, Interbohr AG, Britta Bökenkamp and Bernd Lager.