War of the Corners by Torsten Lauschmann in Plymouth

Glasgow-based artist Torsten Lauschmann is bringing a new and extended version of his successful audio-visual and sculptural exhibition, War of the Corners, to The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art, building on the ambitious body of work first shown last year in Glasgow International Festival.

Taking its title from a war of words that broke out in 18th century Paris when an elitist French opera had to make way for a sudden wave of populist Italian opera, War of the Corners reflects the artist’s concerns at a time when populist and nationalist vocabularies have again re-surfaced.

The exhibition is free to members of the public and open from 6 December 2019 to 8 February 2020 in The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art, with a free public launch from 5pm to 7pm on Thursday 5 December.

War of the Corners combines video projections, light, sound and sculptural instruments that have been programmed and automated to create a fictitious post-human place of worship. Torsten uses these materials, images and motion to speculate and reflect on his world’s absence of toil, suffering and pain – questioning the fantasy of posthumanism and technological positivism.

Torsten Lauschmann told ArtsCulture: “War of the Corners can be seen as a three-dimensional, time-based composition where all of the different elements are choreographed in advance, so that the movement of objects and light are synced to the same video, breaking down the boundary between the virtual space and physical objects.

“I’m interested in the disconnect between technology and the socio-economic wider awareness of how technology functions in society. For this exhibition, I wanted to imagine what a post-human space could look like in a future where we had overcome pain or even eradicated death.

“I imagined how the technologies we use now to manage our health would look in this futuristic society, and tried to create a window into this world. Demystifying technology is a theme that recurs in my work, partly because I feel like artists should feel free to claim new technologies as their own and not impose artificial boundaries.”

Leah Harris, gallery producer for The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art, said: “We’re really excited to bring to Plymouth a show that was created for Glasgow International Festival and more recently appeared at The Model, Sligo, Ireland.

“This is a truly international exhibition that shows a fine artist breaking the boundaries of what might be expected from them, creating and coding immersive work that includes projections and interactive sculpture. Torsten Lauschmann’s War of the Corners contributes to the growing body of forward-facing innovative artwork on show in Plymouth, putting the city on the map as a hub for innovative art within the South West of England.”