Treat Yourself to a Break was the title of Lorenza Longhi’s 2021 solo exhibition at Galerie Weiss Falk in Basel. It was a demand that was meant to be taken seriously; in addition to large-format screen prints that were presented like paintings, benches were placed around the gallery, allowing visitors to relax during the exhibition. This immediately involved the audience in a sophisticated game with the conventions of exhibiting. Longhi made the benches as sculptural elements in space that have the double function of art and useful object. The artist’s work combines the tradition of institutional critique of the 1990s with the do-it-yourself strategies of the present, which are revealed in the often careless-seeming reconstructions of designer classics such as USM Haller office shelving. Oscillating between homage and parody, everyday conventions and monocultures are deconstructed as well as questions of taste and of social prestige.

Lorenza Longhi, who was born in Lecco, Italy, in 1991, studied at the Brera in Milan and at the ECAL in Lausanne. She is based in Zurich.

The Manor Art Prize is one of the most important prizes promoting contemporary art in Switzerland. It was founded by Philippe Nordmann in 1982 with the aim to provide a platform for Swiss artists. It is awarded every year by a professional jury, alternating between Aarau, Basel, Biel, Chur, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Lugano, Schaffhausen, Sion, St. Gallen, and Winterthur. The Manor Art Prize of the Canton of Zurich was previously awarded to the following artists: Andro Wekua, Fabian Marti, Alexandra Navratil, Mathis Altmann, Christoph Eisenring, and Jan Vorisek. Lorenza Longhi is the fourteenth recipient of the Manor Art Prize of the Canton of Zurich.

Curated by Konrad Bitterli