On the occasion of Various Others 2024, Britta Rettberg presents a joint exhibition by Lennart Lahuis and Paul Valentin in collaboration with Dürst Britt & Mayhew, The Hague.
In archaeology, past civilizations are studied based on their material remains. The carefully recovered artifacts are measured, mapped, and documented. This scientific approach aims to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of past civilizations and to understand how they contributed to the development of today’s society. However, challenges arise when excavated items cannot be easily classified and when the found objects seem to have fallen out of time? In their first joint exhibition, “Solid Currents,” Dutch artist Lennart Lahuis and Munich-based artist Paul Valentin explore questions of temporality and examine the recontextualization of objects.
The works assembled in the gallery are composed of objects that can be viewed under the extended archaeological concept of spolia. The term derives from the Latin word “spolia,” which originally means “spoils” or “plundered items.” However, in this context, the objects have not been taken from other people but rather from existing cultural contexts. The spolia are removed from their original function and reincarnated as part of an artwork. The gallery spaces resemble an archaeological site filled with material and media artifacts whose contemplation sharpens the awareness of our time’s current ecological, social, and philosophical conflicts.
Fragmented, brief poetic sentences flow like a soft murmur through the gallery. Lennart Lahuis’ series “MURMUR” comprises fragments of text printed in clay. The inscription is barely visible, with crumbling edges and cracks running through the clay pieces, displayed in the rooms like artifacts from an excavation. Words such as “erosion,” “catastrophic,” and “flood” can still be deciphered. The carefully placed objects seem to bear the marks of time; however, the familiar typography of the words and traces of a web address in the clay are surprising. Therefore, contrary to the first impression, the clay fragments can be located in the present day. Lahuis plays with the temporality of objects and the fragility of information, which are already slowly eroding before the visitor’s eyes. The pieces made from a specific British Weald clay are printed with an adapted version of a typeface mainly used for scientific publications. This impression is not misleading, for what is on display is not a historical text but fragments of a scientific publication from 2017, which describes the erosion process that geologically separated the United Kingdom from the European mainland over thousands of years.
While the text fragments printed in clay appear as if they have already lasted for centuries, the ephemeral words of the series of works “When Is It That We Feel Change In the Air” evaporate within a few seconds. Interested in fundamental questions and physical properties, Lennart Lahuis succeeds in making the invisible visible. Short sentence fragments are visualized by steam rising from familiar containers as if from nowhere. Everyday objects have been alienated and removed from their original function: They are transformed into mystical steam engines in the exhibition space. The fleeting, poetic phrases leave an almost ghostly presence, marked by both fascination and unease. The artist’s steaming oracles proclaim their mantras repetitively. The everyday objects become spiritual bodies of sound in which the enigmatic messages resonate even after material evaporation. Lahuis redefines the prevailing physical conditions by transforming everyday objects into ghostly machines and current scientific publications into archaeological artifacts.
