In “Verplant,” Julian Irlinger presents the animated films "The Curtain of Time" (2025) and "Chronotopia" (2026) alongside custom-designed lanterns. Conceived as seamless loops, the films do not follow a linear narrative. Instead of characters, grids, interiors, and architectural elements drive the action and shape their distinctive visual language.
Irlinger’s visual worlds reinterpret the form and structure of postwar animated and instructional films. Clean lines, flat colors, and minimal movement once symbolized progress, orientation, and social renewal. At the same time, this visual language was employed in educational films, advertising, and propaganda. What appears light, playful, and immediately understandable therefore always conveys a specific vision of how society should be shaped.
In “The Curtain of Time,” modernism’s visions of the future give way to a longing for familiar, historically reconstructed cityscapes. In the film’s loop, planning, demolition, and reconstruction become a continuous movement. “Chronotopia” also depicts the city not as a finished design, but as a place of constant change where different notions of progress converge.
The lanterns designed for the exhibition extend this exploration into the physical space. Their forms draw on different house typologies while also referencing the guided lantern-making workshops held with children for St. Martin’s Day. In this process, educational guidance and individual creativity combine with traditional notions of what a house should look like. The lanterns also demonstrate that seemingly simple forms and familiar images convey social values.
