--- title: "Exhibition Making LUMA Westbau Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4 Gustav Metzger" description: "Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: Gustav Metzger, All of Us Together, LUMA Westbau, Zurich, 13.06—07.09.2025, co-curated by Obrist and Arthur Fouray." canonical: https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-luma-westbau-hans-ulrich-obrist-archives-chapter-4-gustav-metzger type: ExhibitionEvent year: 2025 updated: "2026-09-26T22:46:57+00:00" license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ --- # Exhibition Making LUMA Westbau Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4 Gustav Metzger Exhibition Making LUMA Westbau Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4 Gustav Metzger Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: Gustav Metzger All of Us Together Marina Abramović Maria Thereza Alves John Armleder Bianca Bondi Judy Chicago Abraham Cruzvillegas Minerva Cuevas Mimosa Echard Cerith Wyn Evans Liam Gillick The Institute of Queer Ecology Joan Jonas Koo Jeong A Jean-Jacques Lebel London Fieldworks ( Bruce Gilchrist & Jo Joelson ) Paul McCarthy Gustav Metzger Yoko Ono Cornelia Parker Benoît Piéron Pedro Reyes IX Shells Martine Syms Diana Thater Rirkrit Tiravanija Natsuko Uchino 13.06—07.09.2025 Co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Arthur Fouray , in close collaboration with the Gustav Metzger Foundation LUMA Westbau Schwarzescafé Zurich, Switzerland https://westbau.com/en/program/hans-ulrich-obrist-archive-gustav-metzger Photographs: Gina Folly ‘All of Us Together’ Gustav Metzger , October 2014 LUMA Westbau presents the fourth chapter of the Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives, an exploration of the work of Gustav Metzger (born 10 April 1926 in Nuremberg, passed away on 1 March 2017 in London), an essential figure for ecology and activism in the arts, and his first institutional exhibition in Switzerland in two decades. Drawing upon a two-decade-long friendship between Metzger and Obrist , the exhibition unfolds over two levels, providing both an immersion into never-before-seen archives and a panorama of the artist’s most iconic works, the pertinence of which is ever more urgent. During their first studio visit in 1991 in Glasgow, Douglas Gordon drew Hans Ulrich Obrist ’s attention to the works of Gustav Metzger and John Latham , both pioneers and indispensable inspirations for a then-emerging generation of artists in the United Kingdom. After consulting Norman Rosenthal ’s catalogue of Art Into Society – Society Into Art (1974), which featured his contribution, a statement calling for Years without Art (1977–1980), Obrist attempted to reach Metzger by all available means. He would find himself waiting until Metzger , one day, came to the Serpentine Gallery to see him and Julia Peyton-Jones during the first iteration of the exhibition Take Me (I’m Yours) in 1995. After Metzger ’s Historic Photographs were featured in Damaged Nature: Two New Works and Documents in 1995 at the independent space workfortheeyetodo in London, Suzanne Pagé , Laurence Bossé and Hans Ulrich Obrist added these works to life/live: la scène artistique au Royaume-Uni en 1996, de nouvelles aventures [ life/live: the artistic scene in the United Kingdom in 1996, new adventures , 1996], at the ARC – Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Their first recorded conversation took place in 1997 at the legendary Café Cosmo, a sanctuary for political exiles during the conflicts of the 20th century in London. Their dialogue continuously unveiled Metzger ’s commitment and activist principles. In 1999, Barbara Vanderlinden and Obrist involved him in the project inspired by Bruno Latour , Laboratorium , integrating scientists and artists at the Provinciaal Fotografie Museum in Antwerp. There, Metzger reactivated the work Drop on Hotplate (1968/2024), a basic everyday hotplate elevated to chest height on a metal base, onto which a drop of water is slowly released, causing a spontaneous and random reaction in response to the heat. Their bond intensified when Hans Ulrich Obrist settled in London. Metzger was a key participant in the Serpentine’s first marathon, the Interview Marathon (2006), conceived with Rem Koolhaas . Cultivating mystery, Metzger used red telephone boxes as his means of communication. Consequently, the Serpentine somewhat became his post office box during his retrospective Decades: 1959–2009 in 2009. He later co-curated there the Extinction Marathon: Visions for the Future in 2014. The sentence ‘All of us together’, the title of this exhibition, was composed in 2014 for Hans Ulrich Obrist ’s Handwriting Project. It is part of a collection of notes titled Extinction Handwritings by Metzger . The exhibition compiles the questions Metzger provoked during his life and career, manifested in the presentation of archival material through around ten hours of interviews, handwritten and printed documents, alongside personal notes and other ephemera. The archival presentation complements an in-depth exhibition that brings together works such as Liquid Crystal Environment (1965/2025), Drop on Hotplate (1968/2024) and key pieces from the Historic Photographs series. Posters created in tribute to Metzger highlight the significance of his work and its importance in confronting the crises of today and tomorrow. From the postcards of his childhood to the artists’ editions of the World Soup [ The Kitchen Show ] catalogue, the artists’ postcards of Hotel Carlton Palace: Chambre 763 in 1993, the Do It project (1993–), Take Me (I’m Yours) (1995–), to the artists’ posters of Utopia Station in 2003 and the artists’ posters of the IT’S URGENT project produced by LUMA between 2019 and 2020. Following the previous tributes from artists to Édouard Glissant and Agnès Varda included in the exhibitions of Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives at LUMA Arles and LUMA Westbau (2021–2024), the fourth chapter dedicated to Metzger presents homages by Marina Abramović , Maria Thereza Alves , John Armleder , Bianca Bondi , Judy Chicago , Abraham Cruzvillegas , Minerva Cuevas , Mimosa Echard , Cerith Wyn Evans , Liam Gillick , Joan Jonas , Koo Jeong A , Jean-Jacques Lebel , London Fieldworks ( Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson ), Paul McCarthy , Yoko Ono , Cornelia Parker , Benoît Piéron , Pedro Reyes , IX Shells , Martine Syms , Diana Thater , Rirkrit Tiravanija , The Institute of Queer Ecology , and Natsuko Uchino . Index ## Related pages - [Index](https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-index) ## Structured data ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-luma-westbau-hans-ulrich-obrist-archives-chapter-4-gustav-metzger#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Arthur Fouray Systems", "item": "https://arthurfouray.systems/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Exhibition Making", "item": "https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Exhibition Making LUMA Westbau Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4 Gustav Metzger", "item": "https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-luma-westbau-hans-ulrich-obrist-archives-chapter-4-gustav-metzger" } ] }, { "@type": "ExhibitionEvent", "@id": "https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-luma-westbau-hans-ulrich-obrist-archives-chapter-4-gustav-metzger#webpage", "url": "https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-luma-westbau-hans-ulrich-obrist-archives-chapter-4-gustav-metzger", "name": "Exhibition Making LUMA Westbau Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Chapter 4 Gustav Metzger", "description": "Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: Gustav Metzger, All of Us Together, LUMA Westbau, Zurich, 13.06—07.09.2025, co-curated by Obrist and Arthur Fouray.", "inLanguage": "en", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://arthurfouray.systems/#website" }, "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://arthurfouray.systems/exhibition-making-luma-westbau-hans-ulrich-obrist-archives-chapter-4-gustav-metzger#breadcrumb" }, "startDate": "2025-06-13", "endDate": "2025-09-07", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "LUMA Westbau Schwarzescafé", "address": "Zurich, Switzerland" }, "contributor": { "@id": "https://arthurfouray.systems/#arthur-fouray" } } ] } ```