Lennart Lahuis’s Alchemical Laboratory in Berlin: The “In All Weathers” Exhibition
Standing out as one of Berlin’s long-established venues characterized by an avant-garde and independent stance, Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz plays host to a convention-breaking material philosophy through Dutch artist Lennart Lahuis’s debut institutional solo exhibition in Germany. Realized under the curatorial direction of Susanne Prinz, “In All Weathers” dissects the permeable bond between nature’s relentless elements and humanity’s fragile systems of meaning. Lahuis conceptualizes water, fire, air, and earth not as static categories, but as dynamic forces that continuously bend, erode, and rewrite meaning. Just like a river changing its bed or sediments piling on top of each other, the narratives in the exhibition melt away in time like geological palimpsests.
Meticulously tracking the transition of knowledge through different states of aggregation and substances, this selection juxtaposes four main groups of works with tremendous fluidity. The artist breaks down the rigid and dictatorial structure of language, transforming it into an organism that lives, shifts, and ultimately gets erased. One of the most striking layers in the exhibition is formed by denim works that track daily habits and bodily contact; the fading marks on a fabric turn into organic writing, not written with a pen but absorbed from the memory of the skin. This human contact gains an even more radical dimension in the CALORGRAPHS series, which materializes through sweat and oxidation on heated steel surfaces; body chemistry collides with the hardness of metal, leaving behind volatile yet permanent traces.
Meanwhile, the HYDROLOGY installation, which renders words momentarily visible via water vapor dispersing into the air, turns the water cycle into a linguistic illusion; words gain presence in the atmosphere, get read, and immediately split apart and disappear right after. Standing directly across from this ephemeral visuality is the MURMUR series, bearing the weight of the earth. Reminiscent of ancient tablets unearthed from excavation sites, these fragmented clay works contain missing meanings like incomplete inscriptions; they demand not to be deciphered, but for that sense of incompleteness to be sensed. In this laboratory where the gestures of writing, engraving, and erosion are rhythmically repeated, matter is merely a temporary carrier of memory.
“In Lahuis’s universe, language is not a dogmatic text carved in stone; it is a living fluidity that changes form according to the weather, geological movements, and the temperature of the skin.”
Operating as flawless thought experiments, these artworks focus on the gray area between appearance and disappearance, rather than offering definitive and absolute narratives. Experiencing the exhibition within the characteristic architecture of Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz forces the viewer into a slow and meditative reading, stripped of loud assertions. Set to be visited between June 12 and August 1, 2026, at Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 45, In All Weathers is one of Berlin’s most refined intellectual stops this summer for those who wish to hear the internal voice of material and confront the striking fragility of meaning.
Exhibition Details:
- Venue: Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 45, Berlin, Germany)
- Artist: Lennart Lahuis
- Exhibition Title: In All Weathers
- Curator: Susanne Prinz
- Dates: June 12 – August 1, 2026 (On view)
