Liliane Lijn: Arise Alive

Liliane Lijn once said that women artists follow their senses ‘with little or no acceptance of predetermined moulds’. For the last six decades, Lijn has indeed been breaking with conventional structures, making work that bridges art and science using technology – and often drawing on Greek mythology – to explore themes of female identity and the nature of the universe. Lijn is perhaps best known for her incorporation of kinetic elements, as seen in her motorised Letraset sculptures and works such as Conjunction of Opposites: Woman of War and Lady of the Wild Things (1983–86), two totemic female forms that omit beams of red light and plumes of smoke. These works, and numerous other sculptures, paintings, collages and videos from across her career, feature in this exhibition at Mumok in Vienna – the most comprehensive of the artist’s work to date (14 November–4 May 2025). The exhibition was organised in collaboration with the Haus der Kunst in Munich and with Tate St Ives, where it will travel in May 2025.

Find out more from Mumok’s website.
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Get Rid of Government Time (1962), Liliane Lijn. Photo: Richard Weiss; courtesy Stephen Weiss, London; © Bildrecht, Wien 2024 Photo credit: Richard Wilding 2014

Inner Space Outer Space (1969), Liliane Lijn. Photo: Stephen Weiss; courtesy Stephen Weiss, London; © Bildrecht, Wien 2024

Sweet Solar Dreams III (2002–22), Liliane Lijn. Photo: Lewis Ronald; courtesy the artist and Sylvia Kouvali, London/Pireaus; © Bildrecht, Wien 2024