Circa 106 – On Hold: Robin Lütolf

“All Waiting is a Waiting for death” according to an aphorism by Franz Werfel- yet, taking a closer look the presupposed connection between life-time and its ‘endings might not be as linear and one-directional and it's worth to differentiate, feeling out different qualities and possibilities lying in Wait.

For example, it might feel like a state of inactivity imposed on us, a place we are held back at, as when stuck at a bus stop but might also operate as background ( a mood) - the attitude that while doing something we are also waiting for something [ different ] to happen or wondering what waits for us on some further horizon, that we might vaguely doubt will keep (re-)arriving smoothly.

Moreover, Waiting itself can be conceived as something active or activating, arguably enabling us to hold on to historicity - Walter Benjamin´s weak messianic pointing us to the not-yet realized history of the oppressed waiting to be given another try. A weighty suggestion that we can only approach concretely by being present in spending some time in Wait, for “History, once freed from the hold of dates, involves bodily presence.” ¹

 

Robin Lütolf [ no/all pronouns], conceptual and media artist from Switzerland, based in Vienna, is also interested in the tensions and potentialities within Waiting and can be experienced in the featured works. In a project sketch proposed to us last year, Robin put like this:

 

“In everyday life, every second is supposed to be used productively, whereas waiting or «experiencing time» tends to be regarded as a waste of time. From my observations and self -observations in everyday life, I hear that waiting experiences, as long as a certain amount of patience is present, enable an attitude of observation that hardly finds room during the urge for everyday efficiency."

 

Habitually analyzing social patterns, Robin translates those into playful installations that can be encountered from more than one angle. Robin is also co-founder of the transdisciplinary project/online magazine Eisenbricht, that deals with the intersection of format and public as well as between art and the sciences,aiming to apply their “background in the arts to critically address social practices and current political debates”. Their team includes HfK ID students Louisa Victoria Clever and Uma Malina Grotrian-Steinweg. In the past months they featured a series on Waiting including a text by Maria Arzt from the Circa106 cohort titled “ F u c k   d e a t h  -  w a i t “.

 

It might not be the closest call, in times proclaimed to be running out, yet we still invite you to «experiencing time» - after all Werfel also noted that “Between too early and too late is never more than a moment” and you are more than welcome to bring your moments of doubt and worry about [ these times ] into the space.

 

 

ON ­– HOLD ON

 

Eröffnung: 2.2.2024, 18:00 Uhr

 

¹ Andrew Benjamin: Boredom and Distraction – the moods of modernity, In: Now: Walter Benjamin and History