A Devil's Throne

Part of Debütant*innen 2023 with Constanza Camila Kramer Garfias and An Laphan at Galerie der Künstler*innen, Munich. Lukas Hoffmann opens up a dynamic and plant-populated cosmos, using the systems of nature — and thereby our relationship as a part of it — as a starting point. Through material combinations, design, and the placement of individual elements in relation to each other, he transforms sculptural plants into powerful characters and creates an open, meandering narrative in the exhibition space, with fixed points as well as blank spaces that can be filled with one's own associations. Among other things, Hoffmann's plants speak about positioning — their own within the display but also beyond it — within a broader network of hierarchies, symbioses, and dependencies. They narrate stories of growth and change. At the same time, moments of ambivalent violence are recurring in the works, such as thorns and spikes: a violence that can be frightening but is not fundamentally bad, rather a necessary function of a natural (and realistic) world. Hoffmann's approach to his work mirrors the experience of space: it is shaped by a long process of experimentation and exploration — of materials, shapes, and connections — of continuous, incremental work and intuitive approaches until a balanced system emerges. Each installative element is self-produced and undergoes new artistic decisions and responses in the manufacturing process. For Hoffmann, technology and nature are not opposites but form a unified whole. Anja Lückenkemper