NO EXIT / LUCERNE

URBAN INTERVENTION

NO EXIT / LUCERNE 

Full HD, 09:52 min . 2011 

Public performance / urban intervention  

Video documentation

A spatial intervention that confronts the limits of access, exposing how control over public space extends into legal and institutional frameworks.

No Exit / Lucerne unfolds as an urban intervention in which a temporary structure restricts and redirects movement within the public space of the city. Using red and white barrier tape, the work constructs a fragile yet insistent spatial condition that challenges the assumed openness of its surroundings. The intervention does not fully enclose the space, but produces a state of partial access, where visibility and movement are continuously negotiated. The body becomes both subject to and agent within these shifting boundaries, revealing the mechanisms through which space is organized and controlled.

Unlike other iterations of the work, the intervention in Lucerne directly intersects with institutional and legal frameworks. Its presence provokes an immediate response, exposing the extent to which public space is regulated beyond its visible structures. The work thus extends from a spatial gesture into a confrontation with authority, where the limits of artistic action and civic control become tangible. Through this tension, the intervention reveals how access, visibility, and movement are not neutral conditions, but actively governed and enforced.

PROJECT CONTEXT

The intervention was realized without prior authorization on the Rathausbrücke in Lucerne, temporarily interrupting the flow of public movement. The action triggered an immediate institutional response, highlighting the regulatory conditions governing urban space and the limits imposed on its use.

Situated within a highly controlled urban environment, the work exposed the tension between artistic intervention and civic order, revealing how public space is structured not only physically, but also through legal and administrative frameworks.