06 Oct 2009

Werner Reiterer at Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris

WERNER REITERER – LIFE IN A SOLUTION OF DEATH

The everyday objects look innocuous enough, but then suddenly the work is engulfed in the artist's distanced, metaphysical laughter, and that of the viewer, who has been caught out and had his assumptions challenged. And yet this is laughter that takes art seriously and assigns it a function: Werner Reiterer's aim is to 'study the different mechanisms that determine our perception of the world'. He approaches this goal meticulously, using drawings which are not so much plans for a possible installation as evidence that his misdemeanours are premeditated.

This evidence must be scrupulously preserved, for one day you, too, will be a victim of a work by Werner Reiterer, taken by surprise and yet grateful for the fact. With the artist you will have broached some very deep subjects, such as death, religion and society. It did not take much – a singular installation, an insignificant-looking sculpture, an encouragement to take part ('Shout as loud as you can,' 'Come closer,' etc.) – and you were pulled in to the work as the involuntary actor of art that sets one thinking about one's limits and the rest of the world. Reiterer's works find their target; his drawings hit us where it hurts and turn into installations filled with panting breaths, bombs, laughing gas, lighting effects and, above all, a big dollop of black humour.

For his second solo show at Galerie Loevenbruck, Werner Reiterer is presenting a set of drawings accompanied by four new sculptures. The exhibition space will be like a kind of emergency exit, a place where we can temporarily get away from life or the world around us. The artist takes on the role of a demiurge with no limits, enabling visitors to play with peace in the world, to know their life expectancy, to find out what God has to do with all this and, above all, to realise that He will not be answering any prayers.

Daria de Beauvais, translated by Charles Penwarden.