Dare to be great

Dare to be great

With Trau dich grossartig zu sein, Lorenz Wanker creates a space of ambivalence – between origin and departure, tradition and modernity, security and uncertainty. The installation stages a bus stop, the place that is often the only starting point for change in rural areas. Two stations face each other: one powerful and protective, the other barren and defenseless. They symbolize not only different starting conditions, but also the hardship of an uncertain path.

The floor of the installation preserves a fragment of history and identity. Wanker’s oversized, digitized tablecloth, once made in cross-stitch by his grandmother, becomes the monumental foundation of the exhibition. This traditional Carinthian handicraft embodies the order and consistency of traditional values – a finely woven grid that provides support but can also be limiting, a structure from which one tries to break free. Digitalization and industrial production with Plexiglas and metal reinforce this contrast.

The bus stop becomes a symbol of the decision: Do we get on? Where will the journey take us? Will the bus even come? And if so, do we dare never look back? Wanker interweaves personal history with the universal questions of a generation that moves between the familiar and the new, between stagnation and new beginnings. With a powerful appeal, he encourages us to take a risk: Dare to be great! Because change requires courage – be it to leave your own place, to seek new perspectives or to shape the world yourself.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lorenz Wanker (*2000, Austria) works at the interface between art, theory and digital transformation. After studying theoretical mathematics at the Vienna University of Technology, he is currently studying transmedia art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His works deal with questions of origin, structure and change and combine traditional elements with modern materials and techniques.

His artistic career includes an internship at Studio Andreas Greiner (Berlin) and a residency at the Eva Kahan Foundation in Tuscany. He has presented his work at venues including the Semmelweisklinik in Vienna, with the sculpture “Binary Office Chair” at the Gasthof Kollerwirt and at renowned art events such as Parallel Vienna.

Wanker often works in installations and draws on familiar symbols to address social processes of orientation and repositioning. With the exhibition “Trau dich grossartig zu sein”, he consistently continues this approach and focuses on the question of courage, new beginnings and identity.