Lucas Lenglet’s spatial scenarios often remind us of operative base camps, protective set-ups for use in case of catastrophe, or temporary military hides – or they display the materials and objects characteristic of such places. With “tools for rescue/tools for hiding”, Lucas Lenglet has now realised an installation filling an entire room of the Künstlerhaus; the visitor enters it as if stepping onto a stage.
Inspired, among other things, by Goya’s painting, “El incendio de noche” (1793), which shows the horrified inhabitants of a city or village running to escape a fire at night, Lenglet has created a formalised topography over the extensive area of Studio 2. This assembles tools and instruments for protection and rescue in the form of various objects and architectonic structures.
“tools for rescue/tools for hiding” almost appears to be a response to an event that has already taken place; Lenglet’s strategy is the “formalisation of violence” (Suzanne van den Ven).
Examining the arrangement in Studio 2, the viewer may fall prey to doubts: Lenglet’s protective devices certainly give the impression that they could unexpectedly transform, at any time, into obstacles – becoming a trap for all those who have entrusted themselves to them. Lenglet consciously refrains from any political or moral statement, merely collecting together instruments and tools in order to demonstrate the fragility and relativity of concepts such as “security”. Those with power over its tools are always the people to define the meaning of security and to determine those who may enjoy it.
