The Go-Between

 Lukas Duwenhögger is one of those artists whose objective is to minimize the difference between what he does , what he produces and his view of life . We can say that he has an untamable obstinacy in seeing , examining and definitely shaping an idea on what he looks at . Therefore it is not so easy to hear him speak evasive , approximative words like "maybe" , "I don't know, could be" . Initiating a project , he primarily develops a thought system , an approach to the subject , and when he is at the realization stage of the painting , he juxtaposes his consciousness and his instincts . That is why he did not quite approve of the "Passion and the Wave" title of the İstanbul Biennial . "It’s one of those titles curators deem endearing and choose for the sake of flexibility. After all they have to come up with something. Sure there’s water around here and passion is supposed to be around in art-making, but as any artist can tell you, those components are debatable. Why not “the fling and the flop ?”,   Duwenhögger says . And his views on the Biennial - apart from the words he likes or not  cannot be considered quite flattering . For someone meticulous like Duwenhögger ,being previously told only that the Dolmabahçe Kültür Merkezi , the former kitchen of the last imperial palace , built on a landfill to longlasting economic devastation , will be converted into an exhibition venue by dividing up the space, without being informed of the kind of divisions ( actually individual booths for each artist ) was , as you would guess , a bit of a problem . "Sure enough, individuals being walled up  -  even an art fair is more experimental". Consequently the artist highlighted the division by turning “The Go-Between” into a closed interior which you had to enter if you wanted to see what it contained : a large, full-figure portrait of a bellboy at the end of his night shift and a suspended sculpture of a swallow. The origins of the work are heavily affected by İstanbul  -  hardly surprising if you happen to know that the artist came here for the first time in 1969, as a child, and repeatedly ever since, through thick and thin. For example , it is possible to encounter the depicted decorative objects in the lobby of the Büyük Londra Oteli , where we met ( the gigantic gramophone he painted was just right there on the bar , but now reduced to its real size , and its golden shine dulled by oblivion ) . İt is not so hard to guess that the title of the work is a tribute to Losey's movie of the same title , and that Duwenhögger is a fan of Losey's . If we have to put "The Go - between" aside , and take a look at the milestones of Duwenhögger's art life , we can pronounce his passion for nostalgia and reading , his closeness to architecture and cinema, and consider his detail-based work style as based on"the importance given to the integrity of things encircling people and objects" . Because he prefers to create an atmosphere to complement the painting , rather than painting something and leaving others to do the hanging , a serious wave of rage arises when he is mentioned as only a Painter. 

His posture in art was affected by his childhood days in a house with a garden which provided opportunities for imagination and all kinds of child plays, him being raised by Catholic parents and the church ( "I have managed to overcome the effects" ) , and being homosexual . Duwenhögger is one of those who have painted ever since. However a gift book on a rococo painter ( Antoine Watteau ) changed the way he looked at painting. He started to paint under the influence of the paintings in the book. Although he thinks that being influenced by other artists is pivotal, he opposes the deplorable common practice of contemporary referentiality. Anyway, nowadays he doesn't have an artist to whom he feels close enough to take as an examplary ; at least not on artistry grounds . There are stories from most artists' backgrounds which could be summarized under the title "the victory of determination". Duwenhögger too, has a story which will be a prescription for young artists who have lost their ambitions. When he first attended the Art Academy in Munich at the age of only seventeen, they humiliated his work and said "these paintings could only be the work of a woman" , implying his sexual preference, and the minor importance, if not impotence, or unimportance of women . Duwenhögger thinks that the reason of their demeanour is the hypocrisy of the academicians, who seemingly are extremly open-minded and civilized, but deeply homophobic, misogynist, antisemitic and racist. The artist left following these incidents to travel around in several countries and worked at hotels as a night porter, a waiter and a gardener for a couple of years. Later in 1985, he returned to the Academy, this time to Düsseldorf, and succeeded to have himself recognized . 

Note :  

Despite its lack of descriptive detail the text makes clear of that booth was a curatorial given to which I had to accomodate myself . It was originally designed to be open towards the runway , like at an artfair . I decided to have it closed except for an elevated , eliptical entrance the exact shape and size of the painting hanging next to it on the inside , to possibly inspire visitors to strike a pose within it , as in a frame , for a snapshot  souvenir . I dont know whether  these options had been taken advantage of ; sure enough I would have liked to know that .  

The interior walls of the room were painted a pale matte shade of lavender for the sky and, close to the floor, a band of darker, glossy lavender for the sea, thus integrating the maritime implications of the Biennial’s title and symbolizing the enormous distances migrating birds, like the swallow, have to overcome. As the room was open toward the towering carpentry of the palace kitchen’s ancient roof, a papier-maché swallow hung from way above on a string wrapped in silk  -  the way chandeliers used to be hung  -  ending in what resembled a combination of a powder puff and an artichoke. This semi-botanical object served as a canopy to sanctify the swallow arrested in flight beneath it. The swallow, a revered symbol of spring, love and love-transmission, connecting continents and longings enshrined in countless songs, words and pictures of folklore, holds a tiny billet-doux with a seal in her beak, adressed to a lover. The seal, visible only at close inspection, bears the coat of arms of an Italian family, the Bettoia, whose symbol is a wine barrel. 

Wine, swallow, letter, gramophone, hotel and bellboy represent the transmission of desires requiring secrecy, and passions in need of transport.  

They are all go-betweens. But if wine flows, the swallow flies and the music plays, the boy messenger depicted in Losey’s film falls victim to the clandestine transgressions of his abusive elders and superiors. As for the boy in the painting : even though hotels often serve as a refuge from the plethora of social indictments, they are still hierarchical systems of labour, class and surveillance ; the young beginners employed in them are often subjected to degrees of abuse only comparable to what children may come to experience in their own families ; and all, like in a family, perfectly hidden from view. Contrary to Proust whose descriptions of hotel life, unforgettable as they are, consider the plight of the servants only when they are snatched away to become love machines for their insatiable patrons, Franz Kafka gives us an unflinching account of a hotel underbelly in his late, unfinished novel “Amerika”. (The painting could have equally well called “Karl Rossmann”, after the 17 years old hero of the novel)

I worked in hotels and restaurants for a long time, assiduously, and know what I am talking about. So, Frau Thatcher, there is no such a thing as “there’s no such a thing as society”.

And if, ironically, I seem to have customized “The Go-Between” to the requirements of Passion, Wave&Co like a tailor fitting the suit to a patron he despises, I should add that the work came lapping on the shores of the Biennial like the waves of the sea do, at calm days in unalarmed tourist resorts, from far away ; yet so near.  

12.04.2022 İstanbul