Lygia Clark: Retrospektive

Radical, influential and participatory: Lygia Clark is one of the most significant voices of the South American avant-garde. As a central figure of Neoconcretismo, she redefined the concept of art by blurring the boundaries between artwork and viewer. She questioned conventional forms of image and object. Instead, she called for a practice that engages body and senses, one that can be experienced as an open process.

A radical voice of Neoconcretismo

Lygia Clark is among the pioneering artists of South America. Her works bring the artwork and its audience into direct dialogue. Her walk-through, hands-on installations involve viewers as active participants in their creation. Her stance challenges both the institution of the museum and the idea of an artwork as a finished object, demanding a holistic experience that engages the body and the senses. Her practice reflects both the spirit of change in Brazil and the scars of political oppression of her time – and has lost none of its relevance today.

As a key figure of Neoconcretismo, Lygia Clark searched from the 1960s onward for a new artistic experience. Her development led from the painted image to spatial exploration and finally to abandoning the fixed object in the 1970s. One of her best-known works is the series ‘Caminhando’ (Walking) from 1963, seen here in the cover image. Inspired by the engagement of the Swiss polymath Max Bill with the Möbius strip, Clark devised an instruction in which not the object but the action itself becomes the artwork. 'Caminhando' thus marks a revolutionary break: the focus shifted entirely to a process.

Originals and replicas from around the world

The Kunsthaus Zürich, in cooperation with the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, is mounting the first Clark exhibition in a German-speaking country, and the most comprehensive worldwide since MoMA in New York in 2014. The exhibition was initiated and conceived by the curators of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Irina Hiebert Grun and Maike Steinkamp. In Zurich it has been curated by Cathérine Hug and brings together around 120 historical original works from renowned public and private collections in Brazil, the USA, and Europe – many of which are being opened up to the public for the first time. In addition, around 50 participatory works have been produced as replicas by the Associação Cultural O Mundo de Lygia Clark, enabling visitors to directly engage with Clark’s process-oriented approach to art. In this way, the exhibition ties back to Clark’s own understanding of art:

« For me, making art is about developing as a person, which is the most important thing of all. Art should not seek to emulate a name or any kind of concept. » — Lygia Clark

An accompanying presentation at the Haus Konstruktiv, curated by Evelyne Bucher, sheds light on the Swiss-Brazilian connection and in particular the influence of the Zurich Concrete Artist Max Bill on the generation of Lygia Clark’s contemporaries.

With this exhibition, Lygia Clark’s revolutionary work becomes visible in all its diversity for the first time in the German-speaking world.

Supported by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne and The Leir Foundation.