A floor, four walls, the roof. This results in a house, which often stands for more than just a shelter for people. The Galerie Obrist shows how differently two artists approach the theme, who perhaps have one thing in common: the clear language of form, which condenses to the essentials of the house structure: floor, four walls, roof.

While the Düsseldorf sculptor and draftsman Ulrike Kötz presents finely drawn gouaches of isometric architectural drawings of apartments and also translates them into concrete models, the Mannheim photographer Peter Schlör juxtaposes the house and groups of houses against expansive landscapes in his strict black-and-white photographs.

In Ulrike Kötz's work, the question of space and its ideal proportions plays a significant role: her gouaches and concrete sculptures are scaled-down models of her own living and working spaces, well-known areas that she has used over the years. She tries to reproduce the arrangement of the rooms from memory. In doing so, everything individual is omitted. The personal spaces become objective cells that can now in principle be assigned to any purpose. As prototypes, they could now be used similarly to the Vitruvian primordial hut as a starting point for all possible architecture. As a sculptor, she is interested in the individual components of a house, or the sculptural features such as the curve of a staircase, the floor as a connecting piece to apartment entrances, or the door that reveals nothing and stands freely in space.

Peter Schlör also finds in his photographs the primal form of the house: A rugged landscape, in which a single house is formulated solely through the outline of the wall and gable, just like a child would draw a house. In his work, Schlör fundamentally deals with archetypes, such as the tree, the river, the mountain, or indeed the house, which carry a meaning as timeless symbols for people of all ages and cultures. The house has been a central theme for him from the beginning, and the buildings are always reduced to their basic forms. They appear as symbols of security and protection from the outside world, while at the same time also as places of hermeticism, solitude, and sterility.

While Schlör's focus is directly on the relationship between the built and natural environment, Ulrike Kötz works on a more abstract level regarding the relationship of humans to the (enclosed) space. Both are driven by the question: How does the space we know as "home" transform into a spiritual, creative, or psychological concept?

Ulrike Kötz studied at the HBK Hamburg with Prof. Bogomir Ecker until 1995 and then with Prof. Hubert Kiecol in Düsseldorf until 2000, where she graduated with the academy certificate. Ulrike Kötz lives and works in Düsseldorf.

The Mannheimer Peter Schlör (*1964) has been artistically engaged with the medium of photography for four decades. His distinctive black-and-white photographic works have already been exhibited in numerous museums, art associations, and international galleries.