Kunsthalle Zurich
14 June - 07 September 2025
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.
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.
Curated by Fanny Hauser.