Andres Lutz (born 1968) and Anders Guggisberg (born 1966) have been working together for ten years. The artist duo became known for their room installations, which take bourgeois living and educational culture as their starting point and cleverly subvert it. At the invitation of the Aargauer Kunsthaus, the two artists have put together an exhibition that brings together works from different creative periods and groups of works. Since Lutz & Guggisberg’s working method is characterised by continuous development and the recycling of existing works and materials, the result here is also a situation-specific mix of old and new.

The exhibition centres on large rooms for an executive office, a living area and a library. Instead of cosy orderliness, these rooms are dominated by anarchic bricolage in the form of a hodgepodge of homemade furnishings and everyday objects, second-hand furniture, found objects, sculptures and pictures. In contrast, a path through an allotment garden in the cabinets leads to dark areas (of the soul) – accompanied by omnipresent birds as messengers from a distant world. Each room has its own unique atmosphere. The large pictures are interwoven with countless microcosmic counterworlds, figures and figurines that inhabit and animate the interior spaces. They are testimonies to the sprawling fantasy world of the two artists and determine the basic narrative structure of their work.

Lutz & Guggisberg celebrate the bizarre and ambiguous, creating boundless spaces for association. Language art also plays a particularly important role in their work. For years, the two artists have been working on an imaginary library: dummy books with promising titles, blurbs and covers are among their specialities. For Aarau, they have expanded the library with a large number of new books.

The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue claim to offer the first comprehensive insight into the work of Lutz & Guggisberg.