In her work, installation and conceptual artist Renata Lucas references sociocultural conventions, unconscious conditioning, behavioral norms, and influences of the built environment in order to challenge viewer expectations through site-specific interventions. Through seemingly random encounters that occur at the respective exhibition venues, Lucas undermines social boundaries and promotes new social dynamics.

With o perde (2024), a two-part work at n.b.k. and neugerriemschneider, Renata Lucas invites us to playfully explore the relationship between interaction and absence. At neugerriemschneider, a billiard table serves as a participatory sculpture – visitors can play on it. However, rather than the balls being gathered once pocketed, they move away from the table – across the floor and through walls – disappearing from the players’ radius of action as the game progresses. The billiard table no longer functions as a closed circuit; instead, the work expands into the environment, creating a new kind of playing field that transcends the rules of the game.

Renata Lucas subtly expands the boundaries of the exhibition space to encompass Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.). Here, on the upper floor, individual billiard balls unexpectedly roll out of the wall, accompanied by the distinctive sound of their collisions. Viewers become unwitting witnesses to a surreal game that is beyond the control of the players. No longer a site of individual virtuosity and competition, its presence is both spatially and temporally indeterminate, making us aware of the relativity of causality and agency.

Renata Lucas (*1971 in Ribeirão Preto / Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo. Her works have been shown in numerous solo exhibitions in international museums and institutions, including Performance Space New York (2019); Secession, Vienna (2014); Peep-Hole, Milan (2011); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2010); Redcat, Los Angeles (2007); Gasworks, London (2007). She has also created site-specific works for the Biennale internationale d’art contemporain de Melle (2018), dOCUMENTA (13) (2012), the Istanbul Biennial (2011), the Venice Biennale (2009), and the São Paulo Biennial (2006).